Fresh tension grips Bangladesh as student protesters demand president's resignation

[October 23, 2024]  By JULHAS ALAM

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Political tension in Bangladesh was growing on Wednesday after a leading student group called for the country’s figurehead president to resign over comments he made that appeared to call into question former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's resignation in August.

The interim government was expected to hold a Cabinet meeting to discuss the issue on Thursday.

The student group, known as the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement, set a two-day deadline for President Mohammed Shahabuddin to step down. Hundreds of protesters rallied in the capital, Dhaka, on Tuesday while hundreds of others attempted to storm the presidential palace, Bangabhaban.

Police and witnesses said security officials charged at protesters with batons and used stun grenades to disperse people late Tuesday. Media reports said at least two protesters were injured by bullets.

The new political turmoil began after Shahabuddin told a Bengali-language newspaper earlier this week that he had not seen Hasina’s resignation letter as she fled to India in August amid a student-led uprising. An interim government led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus took power and formed a government after Hasina stepped down on Aug. 5.

Shahabuddin said in his interview with the Manab Zamin daily that he only heard about Hasina’s resignation but had not seen the actual letter, a statement that infuriated the Yunus-led government and student activists, prompting them to call for his resignation.

“I tried (to collect the resignation letter) many times but failed,” the president was quoted as telling the news outlet about the events of Aug. 5. “Maybe she did not have the time.”

Hasina fled the country as thousands of protesters moved toward her official residence.

Shahabuddin, in an earlier address to the nation on Aug. 5, said that Hasina tendered her resignation letter to the president and that he received it.

Asif Nazrul, the country’s law adviser, recently accused Shahabuddin of spreading falsehoods and questioned if he was fit to remain in office as head of state.

Bangladesh army personnel stand guard behind barbed wire and barricades at the entrance of the residence of President Mohammed Shahabuddin after his comments on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina triggered fresh protests in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Mahmud Hossain Opu)

Under Bangladesh’s constitution, an elected prime minister must submit his or her resignation in writing to the president. Shahabuddin was appointed president by parliament after Hasina was elected prime minister for a fourth consecutive term in an election in January.

Shahabuddin dissolved parliament before the interim government took power on Aug. 8.

On Tuesday, some 200 student protesters demonstrated at a monument in Dhaka and described Shahabuddin as a collaborator with Hasina’s “fascist” regime.

Separately, a few hundred protesters attempted to break through a security barricade to enter the presidential palace late Tuesday. The protests continued past midnight into Wednesday.

Experts say the resignation or removal of the president could create a constitutional vacuum. Under the constitution, only parliament can impeach the president for misconduct or other inabilities.

A senior leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which is headed by Hasina's main rival and former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, met with Yunus on Wednesday.

“If the associates of the fallen autocracy attempt to create any constitutional and political crisis, the pro-democracy and agitating political parties and different organizations will deal with it unitedly,” Nazrul Islam Khan, a standing committee member of the party, told reporters.

Hasina is now in India, but the Yunus-led government has said it would seek her expatriation to try her for alleged crimes against humanity.

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