Bangladesh’s parliament has been dissolved, the President Mohammed Shahabuddin’s office stated in a statement, one day after the country’s leader, Sheikh Hasina, resigned and left her position owing to widespread demonstrations.
A “strict programme” will be implemented if the deadline for dissolving parliament is not fulfilled, as protesting student leaders threatened to do just that only hours before the parliament was dissolved.
One of the main organizers of the anti-Hasina campaign, Nahid Islam, together with two other student leaders, established a deadline of 3 p.m. for the parliament to dissolve and urged the “revolutionary students to be ready” in case that deadline was missed.
According to the presidential statement, discussions with the chiefs of the armed forces, political party leaders, student leaders, and certain members of civil society led to the decision to dissolve the parliament.
A meeting with student leaders was scheduled to discuss the creation of an interim administration, which is anticipated to hold elections shortly after it assumes power, with Bangladesh’s Army Chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman.
It was initially unclear if the meeting had actually occurred and whether the students’ deadline for dissolving parliament came after it.
Hasina resigned, according to General Zaman, on Monday, after several days of violent protests that claimed around 300 lives.
The general also declared the establishment of a provisional administration.
