Bangladesh PM Hasina resigns, army chief says will 'form an interim government'

  • 2 months ago

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Transcript
00:00In Bangladesh, the army chief says the prime minister has resigned.
00:04That comes as anti-government protesters were gearing up for a march on the capital, Dhaka,
00:09this Monday.
00:10They're now reportedly storming the presidential palace.
00:13This also comes one day after the deadliest day of unrest since those demonstrations first
00:17broke out last month.
00:19On Sunday, hundreds of thousands of protesters and government supporters across the country
00:23fought each other with sticks and knives as security forces opened fire with rifles.
00:28Nearly a hundred people were killed.
00:31We're going to get the very latest now with our regional correspondent Navadita Kumari
00:34who joins me from New Delhi.
00:36The prime minister has resigned, we're hearing from the army chief.
00:40What more can you tell us about that?
00:43Yes, in a dramatic turn of events in the last hour, protesters stormed the residence of
00:50Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who was just moments ago evacuated to a safer location.
00:57Now the army chief has confirmed that she has resigned and that they will bring peace
01:04to the country and in meanwhile there will be an interim government formed.
01:09The local news also say that Sheikh Hasina might have been brought to India and from
01:15here whether she's headed to some other destination, it is unclear for the moment.
01:21So we were waiting for army chief's address since hours now.
01:27So now in a big turn of events, Sheikh Hasina has resigned.
01:33The main demand from the protesters for weeks now.
01:36Indeed, and those weeks all came to a head on Sunday when close to a hundred people were
01:41killed in violence there.
01:46Exactly.
01:47Even today, even if it was relatively calmer, at least six people have been killed and Sunday
01:53at least a hundred people were killed and a thousand were injured.
01:58So this comes as for the last month, protesters have been coming to the street, protesting,
02:05asking for justice and also for their country to return to normalcy.
02:09They say that they have been suffering economic hardship.
02:13The country of 170 people, the youth of the country say that they have been, they have
02:19been struggling to find jobs and social activists claim that democratic rights of the citizens
02:25have been, have been shrunk here and there was no free and fair election in January.
02:33And Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been ruling the country since the last 15 years
02:38and the country, according to the activists and demonstrations, has deteriorated in terms
02:44of democratic rights and economic prosperity.
02:47Navadita, thank you for that.
02:49That's our regional correspondent, Navadita Kumari.

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