Facing Mass Protests, Bangladesh Leader Quits, Setting Up Power Struggle

They came prepared for violence. A day after about 100 people were killed in antigovernment protests, hundreds of thousands took to the streets of Dhaka, Bangladesh’s capital, defying a curfew imposed by the government and demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

They got their wish. After 15 years of increasingly autocratic rule during which she crushed the opposition and brought the armed forces and the judiciary under her control, Ms. Hasina bowed to pressure and, according to the military, quit her post and fled the country in a helicopter.

The downfall of her government, in a country known for its messy and sometimes bloody politics, plunged the country into lawless uncertainty and all but guaranteed that there will be a fresh battle for power between leaders of her political party, the Awami League, and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, its main opposition.

It remained unclear what role the military, which has seized power in the past, will play — or whether it had a hand in persuading Ms. Hasina to leave. On Monday afternoon, Gen. Waker-uz-Zaman, the Bangladesh Army chief of staff, announced her departure and said he would request the formation of an interim government.

Neither Ms. Hasina, 76, nor the Awami League made any public comment on the head-spinning turn of events that few people had predicted.