Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled the country on Monday, according to a source close to her, following over a month of deadly anti-government protests.
Hasina, who has ruled since 2009, had resisted calls to step down but fled after a brutal day of unrest on Sunday, which saw nearly 100 people killed.
At 76, Hasina escaped the country by helicopter after protesters stormed her palace in Dhaka. The source said she initially left by motorcade before being flown out, without specifying her destination. “She was later evacuated by helicopter.”
Jubilant crowds waved flags and danced on top of a tank in the streets on Monday morning before hundreds broke through the gates of Hasina’s official residence. Bangladesh’s Channel 24 broadcast images of the crowds running into the compound and celebrating.
Protesters also smashed a statue of Hasina’s father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the country’s independence hero.
Bangladesh’s army chief, Waker-Uz-Zaman, is expected to address the nation on Monday afternoon, a military spokesman told AFP without providing further details.
Before the protesters stormed the compound, Hasina’s son had urged the country’s security forces to block any takeover of her 15-year rule.
“Your duty is to keep our people safe and our country safe and to uphold the constitution,” her son, US-based Sajeeb Wazed Joy, said in a post on Facebook.
“It means don’t allow any unelected government to come in power for one minute, it is your duty.”
Security forces had backed Hasina’s government throughout the unrest, which began last month over civil service job quotas and escalated into broader demands for her resignation.
However, protesters defied curfews and lethal force.
On Sunday, at least 94 people, including 14 police officers, were killed in the deadliest day of the unrest.
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