Popular French news agency, AFP had reported on Monday that the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina’s resignation was now a “possibility”.
This is coming after six more lives were lost to the some of the worst violence seen since the inception of the South Asian nation over five decades ago.
The AFP reports of a possible resignation had cited a senior aide. However, a government source had informed Reuters that Hasina and her sister had been taken to a “safe shelter” away from her official residence.
Student activists had also called for a march to the capital city, Dhaka on Monday, defying the nationwide curfew to clamour for Hasina’s resignation, a day after bloody conflicts across the country killed almost 100 people.
About six people were killed in the clashes between police and protesters in the Jatrabari and Dhaka Medical College areas on Monday, according to a report by the Daily Star newspaper but this claim had yet to be verified at press time.
Bangladesh has been overrun by protests and violence that began in July after student groups called for the removal of a controversial quota system in government jobs.
The protest had then escalated into a campaign for the dismissal of Hasina, who had only just won a fourth straight term in January in an election that was boycotted by the opposition.
On Sunday, about 91 people were killed, with hundreds injured on Sunday in a wave of violence that spread across the country of 170 million people as police shot tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the tens of thousands of protesters.
What They’re Saying
The military spokesperson’s office had previously reiterated that the public had been asked to refrain from violence and exercise patience pending when the army chief would address the nation, a Bengali language newspaper, Prothom Alo reported.
