Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned Monday and fled to India, ending her 15-year rule amid weeks of deadly protests against a quota system for government jobs.
Hasina abandoned her official residence in Dhaka, the capital, boarded a military helicopter with her sister, and flew across the border to India the day after nearly 100 people were killed in clashes with authorities. Her ultimate destination was not immediately clear.
Bangladesh's army chief General Waker-uz-Zaman, speaking on state television, told the predominantly Muslim South Asian nation of 170 million people that Hasina, 76, had resigned and that the military would form an interim government.
General Waker-uz-Zaman, dressed in military fatigues, said, "The country has suffered a lot, the economy has been hit, many people have been killed — it is time to stop the violence. I hope after my speech, the situation will improve."
The army chief said he had held talks with the main opposition parties and civil society members but not Hasina's Awami League. He said the military would investigate the crackdown on student-led protests that has fueled outrage against the government and left at least 300 dead since early July.
"Keep faith in the military, we will investigate all the killings and punish the responsible," he said. "I have ordered that no army and police will indulge in any kind of firing."
The main target of the protests has been a quota system that set aside up to 30% of government jobs for family members of veterans who fought in Bangladesh’s 1971 war of independence against Pakistan, while also favoring those with connections to the prime minister's Awami League.
The protests continued even after the Supreme Court last month ruled that the quota system must be drastically cut and evolved into a broader rebuke of Hasina, the world’s longest-serving female head of government.
In photos: Bangladesh prime minister resigns amid violent protests
At least 11,000 people have been arrested in recent weeks. The unrest has also resulted in the closure of schools and universities across the country, and authorities at one point imposed a shoot-on-sight curfew.
Authorities shut off mobile internet connections on Sunday to try to quell the unrest, and broadband internet was cut briefly Monday morning. It was the second internet blackout in the country since July, but services were restored later Monday.
Over the weekend, protesters called for a "non-cooperation" effort with the government, urging people not to pay taxes or utility bills and not to show up to their jobs on Sunday, a workday in Bangladesh. Offices, banks and factories opened, but commuters in Dhaka and other cities struggled to get to their jobs since much public transport was halted amid fears of violence.
With Hasina’s departure, jubilant crowds waved flags, with some dancing atop a tank in the street on Monday morning before hundreds broke through the gates of her official residence.
The Business Standard newspaper estimated as many as 400,000 protesters were on the streets, but any exact number was impossible to verify.
"The time has come for the final protest," said Asif Mahmud, one of the key leaders in the nationwide civil disobedience campaign.
Bangladesh's Channel 24 showed crowds running into the compound, waving to the camera as they celebrated, looting furniture and books, with others relaxing on beds. Some of the demonstrators grabbed food from refrigerators.
Others smashed a statue of Hasina's father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the country's independence hero.
Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at the Washington-based Wilson Center, warned that Hasina's departure "would leave a major vacuum."
"If it's a peaceful transition, with an interim set-up taking over until elections are held, then stability risks would be modest and the consequences would be limited," he said.
"But if there is a violent transition or a period of uncertainty, that could risk more destabilization and problems inside and outside."
Before the protesters stormed the palace compound, Hasina's son had urged security forces to block any takeover.
"It means don't allow any unelected government to come in power for one minute, it is your duty," her son, U.S.-based Sajeeb Wazed Joy, said in a post on Facebook.
Hasina had ruled Bangladesh since 2009 and won her fourth consecutive election in January after a vote without genuine opposition. The U.S. and Britain denounced the results as not credible, but her government defended the outcome.
Hasina’s government was accused by rights groups of misusing state institutions to entrench its hold on power and stamp out dissent, including through the extrajudicial killing of opposition activists.
Her political opponents accused her of growing increasingly autocratic and called her a threat to the country's democracy. Many said the unrest was a result of that authoritarian streak.
On Saturday, Hasina offered to meet with student leaders, but a coordinator refused and demanded her resignation. Earlier, Hasina had said protesters who engaged in "sabotage" and destruction were no longer students but criminals.
Information in this report came from Agence France-Presse and The Associated Press.
