Will Yunus-led interim government bring Bangladesh out of its ‘dark era’?

As a new government headed by the country’s only Nobel laureate takes charge, many wonder how it will undo years of ex-PM Sheikh Hasina’s ‘autocratic rule’.

Dhaka, Bangladesh – Maliha Namlah says she had been holding her breath since Monday when student-led protests in Bangladesh forced longtime Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to resign and flee the country after weeks of deadly unrest in which more than 300 people were killed.

Namlah, 19, was one of the coordinators of the student movement at Jahangirnagar University on the outskirts of the capital, Dhaka. As soon as Hasina’s government fell, her only worry was whether it would be replaced with another military administration in a country that has seen several coups since its independence from Pakistan in 1971.

But the current army chief, General Waker-uz-Zaman, has been hailed for resisting another military takeover since he announced the formation of an interim government as soon as Hasina fled.

“We didn’t fight and shed blood for a military government. We wanted a civilian government that will bring genuine reforms,” Namlah told Al Jazeera on Friday.

“And we are relieved to see that that happened quickly.”

Three days after Hasina quit, Muhammad Yunus, the South Asian country’s only Nobel laureate, was sworn in on Thursday night as the “chief adviser” of a caretaker government tasked to bring peace and democracy, both of which Hasina’s critics said were undermined during her 15 years of “autocratic” rule.

The chief adviser of the caretaker government holds the rank of the prime minister while members of the advisory council are granted the status of ministers.

As the new administration takes over in Dhaka, many are wondering whether it will be able to take the country