Sheikh Hasina, the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, along with her sister, have departed the nation, as per the leading Bengali-language daily, Prothom Alo, and a source from the military, coinciding with the gathering of anti-government demonstrators in the capital. The Prime Minister’s official residence came under attack from protesters on Monday afternoon, as reported by Channel 24. Over the past few weeks, 76-year-old Ms Hasina has been under immense pressure to resign in light of the increasingly deadly protest actions.
Army chief Waker-Uz-Zaman is due to communicate with the nation. What started as student-led protests against the quota system in government job distribution, devolved into conflicts with the police and government supporters, leading to a violent situation with a death toll surpassing 200 in the previous month. This further fuelled public protests, escalating from demands for government accountability to calls for the Prime Minister’s resignation.
On Sunday, violent clashes in the capital resulted in at least 95 casualties, including 14 police officers, and several hundred injuries, as reported by Prothom Alo. The government tried to mitigate the disorder by disabling mobile internet on Sunday, with broadband services failing by late Monday morning, marking the second instance of nationwide internet suspension after the July protests led to deaths.
As of Sunday night, a military-enforced curfew was put into effect covering divisional and district headquarters along with Dhaka. Prior to this, a curfew, albeit with certain exceptions, had been implemented in the capital and its neighbouring regions. The government also declared a holiday from Monday through Wednesday, with courts remaining closed indefinitely. Mobile internet services were disabled, rendering Facebook and other messaging applications, like WhatsApp, unusable on Monday.