‘Bangladesh has got a second independence,’ Nobel laureate says before meeting army chief, president and his swearing-in ceremony.
Nobel Peace Prize-winning economist Muhammad Yunus has returned to Bangladesh to head an interim government after weeks of student-led protests forced Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to resign and flee to India.
“It’s good to be back home,” said the 84-year-old after touching down at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in the capital, Dhaka, on Thursday on a flight from Paris via Dubai.
Yunus was picked by President Mohammed Shahabuddin to lead an interim government, fulfilling a key demand of the student protest leaders.
Yunus was expected to head first to a meeting with the president and army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman before an oath-taking ceremony at 8.30pm (14:30 GMT), at which he is expected to announce his new Cabinet.
“Today is a glorious day for us,” Yunus told reporters at the airport. “Bangladesh has created a new victory day. Bangladesh has got a second independence.”
Yunus’s main objective was to hold elections as soon as possible, said Al Jazeera’s Tanvir Chowdhury, reporting from Dhaka. The poll should be held 90 days from the dissolving of the country’s Parliament, which occurred on Tuesday.
“[He] himself has said he doesn’t want to be a long-term caretaker government chief,” he said.
Students had taken to the streets last month over a controversial government job quota system, their protests escalating into a nationwide crisis following a harsh crackdown by authorities.
Nearly 300 people were killed within weeks in one of the most violent phases of Hasina’s 15-year rule.
Hasina, 76, was forced to step down and flee, with millions of Bangladeshis celebrating her political demise.
Yunus is an economist and banker who was awarded the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for founding Grameen Bank, which pioneered fighting poverty with microloans.
“The students wanted someone noncontroversial, nonpolitical, somebody who is neutral, who has global connections and can bring something to the table for Bangladesh at this moment which is in crisis,” said Chowdhury.
The veteran academic had travelled abroad this year while on bail after being sentenced to six months in jail on a charge condemned as politically motivated. He was acquitted on Wednesday by a Dhaka court.
During Hasina’s reign, Yunus was hit with more than 100 criminal cases and a smear campaign by a state-led agency that accused him of promoting homosexuality, with courts accused of rubber-stamping decisions by Hasina’s government.
Army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman said he backed Yunus: “I am certain that he will be able to take us through a beautiful democratic process.”