Tensions grip Bangladesh as student protesters demand president’s resignation

Political tension in Bangladesh grew on Wednesday after a prominent student group called for the country’s president to resign over his comments that appeared to question former prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s resignation in August.

The interim government was expected to hold a cabinet meeting to discuss the issue on Thursday, as student protesters accused President Mohammed Shahabuddin of collaborating with Hasina’s “fascist” regime.

The Student Anti-Discrimination Movement set a two-day deadline for Shahabuddin to resign. Hundreds of protesters gathered in the capital, Dhaka, on Tuesday and Wednesday, while others attempted to storm the presidential palace. Police and witnesses said security authorities used stun grenades to disperse people.

Shahabuddin told a Bengali-language newspaper earlier this week that he had not seen Hasina’s resignation letter when she fled to India in August during a student-led uprising. An interim government led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus took power and formed a government after Hasina resigned on August 5.

Shahabuddin told the Manab Zamin daily that he had only heard of Hasina’s resignation but had not seen the letter, saying he had tried to collect it “many times but was unable to do so”. He added: “Maybe she didn’t have time.”

The statement infuriated the Yunus-led government and student activists. This contradicts Shahabuddin’s address to the nation on August 5, when he said he had received the letter.

According to Bangladesh’s constitution, an elected prime minister must submit his resignation in writing to the president. Shahabuddin was appointed to the role by parliament after Hasina was elected prime minister for a fourth consecutive term in January.

Shahabuddin dissolved parliament before the interim government took power on August 8.

Asif Nazrul, the country’s legal advisor, recently accused Shahabuddin of spreading falsehoods and questioned whether he was fit to remain in office.

Experts said the president’s resignation or removal could create a constitutional vacuum. According to the constitution, only parliament can impeach the president.

A senior leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, led by Hasina’s main rival and former prime minister Khaleda Zia, met Yunus on Wednesday.

“If the associates of the fallen autocracy try to create any constitutional and political crisis, the pro-democracy political parties and agitators and different organizations will deal with it in a united manner,” Nazrul Islam Khan, a member of the party’s standing committee, told reporters.

Also on Wednesday, the Ministry of Home Affairs, in a notice, banned the Bangladesh Chhatra League, an influential student wing of Hasina’s Bangladesh Awami League party, with immediate effect, saying the government took the decision following the Law Anti-terrorism in the country.

The notice states that the government has evidence that the 76-year-old student body has been involved in “subversive” activities against the state since Hasina resigned. He did not share the evidence. The decision came a day after the Student Anti-Discrimination Movement issued a seven-day ultimatum to the government to ban the group.

Hasina is now in India, but the Yunus-led government said it would seek her expatriation to try her for alleged crimes against humanity.