Nobel Peace Prize winner to lead Bangladesh interim government
Let’s take you to Bangladesh now, the Nobel Peace Prize, when Mohammed Yunus is going to return there, we understand, on Thursday to become the leader of the nation’s interim government. He’s a long -time political foe of the ousted prime minister. And actually in the last few minutes or so,https://youtu.be/KvCIgJhJtDc?si=ysDkHB3I4e3nCqsf
we’ve just got these pictures in from Charles de Gaulle. This is the main airport in Paris. He has been there, we understand, having a minor medical procedure. But he’s there, obviously, to fly back to Bangladesh. He was announced as leader following talks between the president and student leaders, who
played a key role in weeks of protest that toppled Shekhasina. Mr. Yunus is 84. He’s faced several legal cases this year, which he said were politically motivated, and as I mentioned, in Paris for that small medical procedure. Daka is now said to be largely calm, but there have beenreports of looting and killing across the country. Police there have also gone on strike. They’re complaining of a wave of reprisal attacks against them. Let’s take you to Akbar Hossain from our Bengali service, joining us from Daka. Where to start? There’s so much, but let’s start with Mr. Yunus
and whether there is broad happiness about the fact that he is coming back and taking over. He’s coming back to Daka either tonight or tomorrow. And when he will be back, then Mr. Yunus will choose his colleagues around 10 or 15 members of the Cabinet. And Mr. Yunus came
because the students leaders that demanded and they proposed the name of Professor Muhammad Yunus as the head of the next interim government because they think that Mr. Yunus is the person who could turn around the country because Bangladesh is now, you know, stability is very much needed here. There
is no government for the last two days. So in many parts of the country, some sort of disorder and violence is still going on. We have seen that many police stations were set on fire around 500 and police officers, they went under hiding and all local police stations are
empty. So some sort of disorder is still going on and houses, properties and businesses belong to the people who were Shekhasina’s party, Awami League, their houses and businesses were burnt. So it would be a difficult task for the next interim government to look after these things. Akbar, you mentioned
the police have gone on strike, they’re very worried about reprisal attacks. What does that mean for the streets of Daka right now? Because I had seen some reports that it’s students themselves who are actually on the streets doing things like directing traffic. Yeah, that’s a very interesting thing to see. I have seen in many places because students say that because as there is no police force in the country, police are not performing their duties. Police are basically they are scared of public backlash because during the violence, many police personnel, they were killed.