Bangladesh PM flees as protesters storm palace

Bangladesh’s Channel 24 broadcast images of crowds running into the compound, waving to the camera as they celebrated.

A source close to Hasina, 76, had earlier told AFP she had left her palace for a “safer place.”

Bangladesh’s army chief Waker-Uz-Zaman would address the nation on Monday afternoon, a military spokesman told AFP without giving further details.

Before the protesters had stormed the compound, Hasina’s son urged the country’s security forces to block any takeover from her 15-year rule.

“Your duty is to keep our people and our country safe and uphold the constitution.

“It means don’t allow any unelected government to come in power for one minute, it is your duty,” her son, United States-based Sajeeb Joy, said in a Facebook post.

Security forces had supported Hasina’s government throughout the unrest, which began last month against civil service job quotas and then escalated into wider calls for her to stand down.

But the protesters defied curfews and deadly force.

No fewer than 94 people were killed on Sunday, including 14 police officers, in the deadliest day of the unrest.

Protesters and government supporters countrywide battled each other with sticks and knives, and security forces opened fire.

The day’s violence took the total number of people killed since protests began in early July to at least 300, according to an AFP tally based on police, government officials and doctors at hospitals.

Waker told officers on Saturday that the military “always stood by the people,” according to an official statement.

The military declared an emergency in January 2007 after widespread political unrest and installed a military-backed caretaker government for two years.

– ‘Final protest’ –

Hasina has ruled Bangladesh since 2009 and won her fourth consecutive election in January after a vote without genuine opposition.

Rights groups accuse her government of misusing state institutions to entrench its hold on power and stamp out dissent, including through the extrajudicial killing of opposition activists.

Demonstrations began over the reintroduction of a quota scheme that reserved more than half of all government jobs for certain groups.

The protests escalated despite the scheme having been scaled back by Bangladesh’s top court.

Soldiers and police with armoured vehicles in Dhaka had barricaded routes to Hasina’s office with barbed wire on Monday morning, but vast crowds flooded the streets, tearing down barriers.

The Business Standard newspaper estimated as many as 400,000 protesters were on the streets but it was impossible to verify the figure.

“The time has come for the final protest,” said one of the key leaders in the nationwide civil disobedience campaign, Asif Mahmud.

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

“Let’s be clear: The walls are closing in on Hasina. She’s rapidly losing support and legitimacy.

“The protests have taken on immense momentum, fuelled by raw anger but also by the confidence that comes with knowing that so much of the nation is behind them,” said, the director of the South Asia Institute at the Washington-based Wilson Centre, Michael Kugelman.

In a hugely symbolic rebuke of Hasina, a respected former army chief demanded the government “immediately” withdraw troops and allow protests.

“Those who are responsible for pushing people of this country to a state of such extreme misery will have to be brought to justice,” ex-army chief Gen. Ikbal Bhuiyan told reporters Sunday.

The anti-government movement attracted people from across society in the South Asian nation of about 170 million people, including film stars, musicians and singers.

AFP