Muhammad Yunus heads home to lead Bangladesh interim government

Army chief says the interim government headed by the Nobel Peace laureate would be sworn in on Thursday night.

Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel Peace laureate tapped to lead an interim government in Bangladesh, has called for calm as he boarded a flight to return home, a day before his new government is expected to be sworn in to replace deposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Yunus, 84, was picked by President Mohammed Shahabuddin to lead the new interim government, a key demand of student demonstrators whose uprising drove Hasina, 76, to flee to India on Monday.

“I am looking forward to going back home, see what’s happening and how we can organise ourselves to get out of the trouble we are in,” he told reporters before boarding a flight at Paris’s Charles de Gaulle airport for Dubai where he was to connect to Dhaka.

“I fervently appeal to everybody to stay calm. Please refrain from all kinds of violence,” said Yunus, an economist and banker who was awarded the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for founding a bank that pioneered fighting poverty with small loans to the general populace.

He has been hailed for bringing thousands out of poverty through Grameen Bank, which he founded in 1983, and which makes small loans to businesspeople who would not qualify for regular bank loans.

Bangladesh’s military chief said on Wednesday the interim government headed by Yunus would be sworn in on Thursday night after he returns from Paris to take over the administration and try to restore stability.

General Waker-Uz-Zaman said in a televised address on Wednesday afternoon that those responsible for the violence since Hasina’s resignation would be brought to justice.

The military chief, flanked by the chiefs of navy and air force, said he spoke to