Nobel Laureate Tapped to Lead Interim Government in Bangladesh

The president of Bangladesh on Tuesday appointed Muhammad Yunus, a pioneer in microfinance who is a Nobel laureate, to oversee an interim government, accommodating demands by protesters and offering a reprieve for a country scarred by violence.

The announcement from the main coordinator of the protests, Nahid Islam, came a day after Bangladesh’s authoritarian leader, Sheikh Hasina, resigned and fled the country amid a popular uprising. Mr. Islam was among a group of military officials and others present at a meeting with the president on Tuesday.

Mr. Yunus, 84, is expected to lead a temporary government now that the Bangladeshi Parliament has been dissolved.

Mr. Yunus, who is widely admired in Bangladesh and once made a brief foray into politics, has two immediate tasks.

First, he will have to restore order to a country of 170 million people that has been roiled by weeks of student protests and violent clashes with security forces that have killed more than 100 people.

And second, he will have to define the role of the interim government and what its mandate will be until Bangladesh holds elections to choose a new leader.

For days before Ms. Hasina stepped down, protesters had been demanding her resignation, angered after her government began a brutal crackdown on students who had agitated against a preferential quota system being used for public-sector jobs.

Restoring peace and addressing the incidents of violence and vandalism will be top priorities for the interim government, said Fahmida Khatun, head of research at the Center for Policy Dialogue. “As you can see, there is no order on the streets, a lack of trust in police and there has been significant property damage,” Ms. Khatun said.

Smriti Singh, regional