- The army chief said the advisory council headed by Mr Yunus could have up to 15 members. Bangladesh President Mohammad Shahabuddin on Tuesday appointed 84-year-old Mr Yunus as the head of the interim government following the violent ouster of pro-India former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
- Gen Wakar said when Mr Yunus arrives in Bangladesh to head the interim government, he will lead the country through a “democratic process”.
- “He is very eager to do that,” the general said in a televised address to the nation. “I am very confident that he will be able to lead us through a beautiful democratic process that will benefit us.”
- Mr Yunus also said today that he is looking forward to helping the country overcome the current turmoil. “I am looking forward to going back home, seeing what is happening and how we can organise ourselves to get out of this crisis,” he told reporters at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport before boarding a flight to Dubai. From Dubai, he will take a connecting flight to Dhaka.
- The Nobel Prize-winning microfinance pioneer has appealed for calm after weeks of violence that has left at least 455 people dead. “If we resort to violence, everything will be destroyed,” he said.
- The appointment came soon after student leaders called on Mr Yunus – who is credited with lifting millions of people in Bangladesh out of poverty – to take over the leadership. The decision was taken at a meeting with President Mohammad Shahabuddin, the chiefs of the army, navy and air force, and student leaders.
- According to Nahid Islam, one of the leaders of Students Against Discrimination who attended the meeting, Mr Yunus will be given the post of chief advisor.
- A Bangladesh court today acquitted Mr Yunus of the labour conviction on appeal, his lawyer Khaja Tanvir Ahmed told news agency AFP. Mr Yunus fled abroad after being sentenced to six months in jail for the labour charge earlier this year – but was immediately granted bail pending an appeal. Rights monitors including Amnesty International had criticised the case as politically motivated.
- Ms Hasina, 76, who had been in power since 2009, resigned on Monday as hundreds of thousands of people poured into Dhaka’s streets demanding she step down. Monday’s events were the culmination of more than a month of unrest that began as protests against a plan for quotas in government jobs but later spiraled into an anti-Hasina movement.
- Ms. Hasina, accused of rigging January elections and widespread human rights abuses, deployed security forces to suppress the protests. Hundreds have died in the crackdown, but over the weekend the military turned against Ms. Hasina and she was forced to flee by helicopter to neighboring India.
With inputs from AFP
