With Sheikh Hasina out of office and army taking over, what next for Bangladesh?

Bangladesh is in the grip of a major political crisis after its prime minister Sheikh Hasina stepped down and left the country amid violent protests against her regime. The protests over the controversial job quota order escalated into into wider calls for her ouster. Hasina landed at Ghaziabad in India with HT learning that she could fly to London.

Bangladesh Army chief General Waker-uz-Zaman in a televised address while announcing Hasina's resignation, said that he will hold talks with President Mohammed Shahabuddin and an interim government will be formed.

In January this year, Hasina, the daughter of Bangladesh founder Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had been elected for a fourth straight term in a controversial general election boycotted by opposition parties including Begum Khalida Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party.

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With Hasina out of office and the army taking over the reins of the country known for coups, what next for Bangladesh?

Michael Kugelman, director of South Asia Institute at Washington-based Wilson Centre, told AFP that Sheikh Hasina's departure would leave a “major vacuum” and Bangladesh was in an “uncharted territory”.

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“The coming days are critical, as it moves toward what will hopefully be a peaceful transition. The key now is to move the process along, to create the interim set-up, to ease uncertainty and reduce the risk of more volatility," he added.

On Sunday, nearly 100 people were killed with protesters and Awami League supporters fighting each other with sticks and knives.

The latest violence took the total number of people killed since protests began in early July to at least 320, according to an AFP tally based on police, government officials and doctors at hospitals.

Soldiers and police in several cases did not intervene to stem Sunday's protests, unlike during the past month of rallies that repeatedly ended in deadly crackdowns.

Army chief Zaman promised that the military would investigate all the killings and punish those responsible. "I have ordered that no army and police will indulge in any kind of firing. Now, the students’ duty is to stay calm and help us,” he added.

Naomi Hossain, a research professor who specialises in Bangladesh at London-based SOAS University, told AP,"It is an end of a regime that delivered a lot of development but was increasingly authoritarian, as we saw with the mass killings these past weeks. The country has seen interim governments in the past. For now the hope is that the army will ensure peace."

“It could get ugly if the army isn’t able to calm people down and defuse the issue. It could be a while before we are out of the woods,” Hossain added.

(With AP, AFP inputs)

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