Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus to lead Bangladesh interim government

The microfinance pioneer has been tapped to lead an interim government after the ouster of PM Sheikh Hasina.

Bangladesh’s Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus will head the country’s interim government after former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina stepped down and fled the country amid a mass uprising against her rule led mostly by students.

The announcement early on Wednesday came from Joynal Abedin, the press secretary of President Mohammed Shahabuddin.

Abedin also said the other members of the Yunus-led government would be decided soon after discussion with political parties and other stakeholders.

The leaders of the student protests, the chiefs of the country’s three divisions of the military, and civil society members, as well as some business leaders, held a meeting with the president for more than five hours late on Tuesday to decide on the head of the interim administration.

The students had earlier proposed Yunus and said the 83-year-old microfinance pioneer had agreed. He is expected to return to the country from Paris soon, local media reported.

Following the decision, student leaders left the president’s official house shortly after midnight, satisfied and welcoming the decision.

Nahid Islam, a leader of the student group, called the talks “fruitful” and said Shahabuddin had agreed that the interim government “will be formed within the shortest time” possible.

Shahabuddin also sacked the national police chief in the wake of deadly protests that sparked Hasina’s departure and named a replacement, his office said.

Yunus is a well-known critic and political opponent of Hasina. He called her resignation the country’s “second liberation day”. She had once called him a “bloodsucker”.

An economist and banker by profession,