When Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus flew back to Bangladesh in August, he was greeted by bleak scenes. The streets were still slick with blood, and the bodies of more than 1,000 protesters and children were piled up in morgues, riddled with bullets fired by police.
Sheikh Hasina had just been toppled by a student-led revolution after 15 years of authoritarian rule. She fled the country in a helicopter as civilians, seeking revenge for her atrocities, ransacked her residence, reports UK-based The Guardian today.
At 84, Prof Yunus – an economist who won a Nobel prize for pioneering microfinance for the poor – had long given up his political ambitions. He had faced years of vilification and persecution by Hasina, who viewed him a political threat, and he spent much of his time abroad.
But when the student protesters asked him to lead an interim government to restore democracy to Bangladesh, he agreed.
“The damage she had done was monumental,” Prof Yunus told the Guardian, describing the state of Bangladesh when he took charge. “It was a completely devastated country, like another Gaza, except it wasn’t buildings that had been destroyed but whole institutions, policies, people and international relationships,” The Guardian said.বিস্তারিত