Getty PhotographsBangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wazeed has resigned and left the nation after weeks of student-led protests changed into lethal nationwide riots.
The 76-year-old reportedly fled to India by helicopter on Monday as hundreds of protesters stormed her official residence within the capital Dhaka.
It brings an sudden finish to the reign of Bangladesh’s longest-serving prime minister, who has dominated the nation for greater than 20 years since 2009.
Ms Hasina started her political profession as a pro-democracy icon and is credited with overseeing the South Asian nation’s financial progress in recent times.
Lately, nonetheless, she has been accused of turning into authoritarian and repressing anybody who opposes her rule. Politically motivated arrests, disappearances, extrajudicial killings and different abuses have elevated below Ms Hasina.
In January, she was elected prime minister for an unprecedented fourth time in a January election that critics extensively condemned as a sham and boycotted by the primary opposition.
How did Sheikh Hasina come to energy?
Ms. Hasina was born right into a Muslim household in East Bengal in 1947, and politics is in her blood.
Her father is nationalist chief Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the “Father of the Nation” of Bangladesh who led the nation to independence from Pakistan in 1971 and have become its first president.
By then, Ms. Hasina had already established a fame as a pupil chief at Dhaka College.
In 1975, her father and most of his household have been assassinated in a army coup.
After exile in India, Ms Hasina returned to Bangladesh in 1981 and have become the chief of her father’s celebration, the Awami League.
Through the army rule of Normal Hussein Mohammed Ershad, she joined forces with different political events to stage pro-democracy avenue protests. Fueled by a well-liked rebellion, Ms Hasina rapidly grew to become a nationwide icon.
She was first elected to energy in 1996.
However on the similar time, her authorities has been criticized for a raft of allegedly corrupt enterprise offers and for being too subservient to India.
She later misplaced in 2001 to her former ally and now nemesis, Ms Khaleda Zia of the Bangladesh Nationalist Occasion (BNP).
As heirs to a political dynasty, the 2 girls have dominated Bangladeshi politics for greater than three many years and have been as soon as often known as the “combating girls.” Begum refers to a higher-status Muslim lady.
Observers say their fierce rivalry has led to bus bombings, disappearances and extrajudicial killings turning into a daily prevalence.
Ms Hasina ultimately returned to energy in 2009 in polls below a caretaker authorities.
A real political survivor, she endured a number of arrests throughout her time in opposition and suffered quite a few assassination makes an attempt, together with one in 2004 that left her listening to broken. She additionally endured efforts to pressure her into exile and quite a few courtroom circumstances accusing her of corruption.
Getty PhotographsWhat has she achieved?
Bangladesh below Ms Hasina presents a really completely different image. The Muslim-majority nation, as soon as one of many world’s poorest, has loved convincing financial success below her management since 2009.
It’s now one of many quickest rising economies within the area, surpassing even neighboring India. China’s per capita revenue has tripled previously decade, and the World Financial institution estimates that greater than 25 million individuals have been lifted out of poverty previously 20 years.
A lot of this progress has been pushed by the garment trade, which accounts for the overwhelming majority of Bangladesh’s complete exports and has expanded quickly in latest many years to provide markets in Europe, North America and Asia.
Ms Hasina’s authorities has used the state’s personal funds, loans and growth help to embark on main infrastructure initiatives, together with the $2.9 billion flagship Padma Bridge throughout the Ganges.
What’s the controversy surrounding her?
The most recent protests are the hardest problem Ms Hasina has confronted since taking workplace, after extremely contentious election Her celebration was elected to a fourth consecutive time period in parliament.
She stays defiant amid rising requires her resignation. She denounced the instigators as “terrorists” and referred to as on all events to help a “resolute suppression of those terrorists.”
Latest unrest in Dhaka and elsewhere started with calls to scrap quotas for civil service jobs however have since advanced right into a broader anti-government motion.
Bangladesh has been grappling with the rising price of dwelling for the reason that outbreak. Inflation has soared, international alternate reserves have fallen sharply, and international debt has doubled since 2016.
Critics blame mismanagement by Ms Hasina’s authorities and say Bangladesh’s earlier financial success was solely as a result of endemic corruption that helped these near Ms Hasina’s Awami League.
Additionally they say the nation’s progress has come on the expense of democracy and human rights, and declare Ms Hasina’s rule has been marked by repressive authoritarian measures focusing on her political opponents, critics and the media. The federal government and Ms Hasina deny such accusations.
However since 2009, rights teams have documented a whole bunch of circumstances of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings by safety forces.
Most of the BNP’s senior leaders and hundreds of supporters have been arrested in latest months following anti-government protests, a exceptional flip for a pacesetter who as soon as campaigned for multi-party democracy.
Ms Hasina’s authorities flatly denies the accusations of being behind the assault. However it additionally severely limits entry to international journalists who need to examine such allegations.
