Bangladesh's leaders are under pressure to form an interim government to avoid a power vacuum that could lead to further clashes.
Hours after her resignation, Bangladesh Army Chief of Staff General Waqer-uz-Zaman promised to form an interim administration, adding on state television that “it is time to stop the violence.”
Student leaders have made it clear that they will not accept a military-led government and are seeking to appoint Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus as a senior adviser to the interim government.
Accepting the role, Yunus said: “When students who have sacrificed so much ask me to step forward during these difficult times, how could I say no?”
According to his spokesperson, he was returning to Dhaka from Paris to undergo a minor medical procedure.
Meanwhile, former prime minister and main opposition leader Khaleda Zia has been released from years of house arrest, a presidential statement said.
She is the leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which boycotted the 2014 and 2024 elections, saying free and fair elections were impossible under Ms Hasina's rule.
The BNP wanted the vote to be held under a neutral transitional administration, which is now possible after the departure of Ms Hasina, who has always rejected this demand.
Mrs Zia, 78, served as Bangladesh's prime minister from 1991 to 1996 but was jailed in 2018 on corruption charges. But she said the charges were politically motivated.
