Bangladesh parliament dissolved ; Yunus agrees to be chief adviser : reports
Bangladesh’s parliament has been dissolved, according to a statement from the president’s office.
It was a key demand made by student protest coordinators, who had set a deadline of 15:00 local time (09:00 GMT).
Student protesters have said they will not accept a military-led government.
Meanwhile, Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus has agreed to a call by students in Bangladesh for him to be chief adviser to an interim administration promised by the military following Sheikh Hasina’s resignation as prime minister.
“When the students who sacrificed so much are requesting me to step in at this difficult juncture, how can I refuse?” Mr Yunus said.
Mr Yunus, who is in Paris at the moment, will head back to Dhaka shortly, Lamiya Morshed, the executive director of the Yunus Centre, told the BBC.
Also, a picture is starting to emerge of how Sheikh Hasina came to be in Delhi on Monday, with Indian Foreign Minister S Jaishankar revealing she had made a request to come to India at “very short notice”.
“She arrived yesterday evening in Delhi,” Jaishankar confirmed in his first public statement since Hasina’s resignation.
Exactly when she made that request was not clear.
He also did not elaborate on what the next steps would be, or how long she would be staying in India. He simply said it was “for the moment”.
The minister added that India remained “deeply concerned till law and order is restored” in Bangladesh.
“Our border guarding forces have been instructed to be exceptionally alert in view of this complex situation. In the last 24 hours, we have been in touch with authorities in Dhaka,” he said.