A source close to her told AFP her security team, gauging the mood on the ground, asked her to leave her residence and the country immediately and she didn’t get any time to pack up or record a farewell speech.Bangladesh army stepped in to fill the power vacuum, ending one uncertain chapter and opening another in the nation’s restive history.
Sajeeb Wazed Joy, Hasina’s son and her ex-official adviser, said she wouldn’t make a political comeback and that she left the country for her own safety on her family’s insistence.
As news of Hasina’s departure spread, volatile crowds took to the streets here, some clambering on her father and Bangladesh founder Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s statue and smashing it with hammers in a lasting image underscoring the fickleness of history. Many went on a ransacking and looting spree in her residence. A mob vandalised Indira Gandhi Cultural Centre in Dhanmondi. Four Hindu temples also suffered “minor” damage.
In an address to the nation, army chief General Waqar-uz-Zaman said an interim govt would be formed and he had met members of most political parties. “I’m taking all responsibility (of the country),” he said. At night, President Mohd Shahabuddin ordered the release of prisoners from the protests as well as jailed ex-PM and key opposition figure Khaleda Zia of BNP.