Who will run Bangladesh's interim govt? I'm taking full responsibility, says army chief

Bangladesh Army Chief Waker-Uz-Zaman on Monday announced that Sheikh Hasina has resigned as the Prime Minister of the country and said he will form an interim government to run the country.

He said the Prime Minister has fled the capital in the face of overwhelming protests.

“I am taking full responsibility,” the general said in a broadcast to the nation on state television.

Dressed in military fatigues and cap, he said, “We will form an interim government.”

Although it was not immediately clear if he would head a caretaker government.

He said the army will try to return peace to the country and appealed to citizens to stop violence.

“We will return peace to the country. We ask citizens to stop violence. We will investigate all killings that have happened over the past few weeks,” Reuters quoted Waker-uz-Zaman as saying.

He said he would talk to the president to form the interim government and had held talks with the main opposition parties and civil society members - but not Hasina’s Awami League.

Waker is a career infantry officer who has spent nearly four decades in the military, serving two tours as a UN peacekeeper as well as in the prime minister’s office.

He said there was no need for curfew or any emergency in the country and promised to find a solution to the crisis by tonight.

With inputs from agencies