Bangladesh’s leader resigns and flees country after protests

Sheikh Hasina, then the prime minister of Bangladesh, in her office in Dhaka on June 11, 2023. (Atul Loke/The New York Times)

By Saif Hasnat, Mujib Mashal and Matthew Mpoke Bigg

Jubilant crowds thronged the streets of Bangladesh’s capital Monday after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled the country. The army chief said in a statement to the nation that the army would oversee the formation of an interim government.

Hasina, 76, had ruled Bangladesh since 2009. She was forced out by weeks of protests that began peacefully and then transformed into deadly clashes with security forces. She was spotted at the airport in the capital, Dhaka, but hours after her resignation, her exact location was not clear.

The student-led protests grew into a broader movement seeking the removal of Hasina, who was seen as an increasingly authoritarian leader. On Sunday, the deadliest day of the protests, almost 100 people were reported killed in clashes between security forces and demonstrators across Bangladesh.

Hasina, one of the world’s longest ruling female leaders, had blamed the violence on her political opponents and called for “resisting anarchists with iron hands.”

Here’s what to know:

— Hasina played a pivotal role in the politics of Bangladesh, a nation of around 170 million people that proclaimed its independence in 1971. She won reelection to a fourth consecutive term in January. She is the daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the country’s charismatic founding leader, who was killed in a military coup in 1975, when Hasina was 28. She served as prime minister from 1996 to 2001 and regained power in 2009.

— Under her leadership, the economy, helped by investment in the garment export industry, grew quickly, and average income levels at one point surpassed those in neighboring India. Bangladesh also experienced rapid development in education, health, female participation in the labor force and preparedness against climate disasters including flooding — a national priority in a delta nation.

— But her critics said that she tried to turn the country into a one-party state, and the protests that began last month reflected broader discontent against her rule.