By Nurat Uthman
Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled the country on Monday, a source close to the leader told AFP, following more than a month of deadly anti-government protests.
Hasina, who has ruled since 2009, had defied weeks of demands for her to stand down but fled following a brutal day of unrest on Sunday in which nearly 100 people died.
Hasina, 76, fled the country by helicopter, a source close to the leader told AFP shortly after protesters had stormed her palace in Dhaka.
“Her security team asked her leave, she did not find any time to prepare”, the source said.
The source adding she left first by motorcade but then was flown out, without saying her destination. “She was later evacuated on a helicopter.”
Jubilant looking crowds had waved flags, some dancing 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 crowds running into the compound, waving to the camera as they celebrated.
Others smashed a statues of Hasina’s father Sheikh Mujibur Rahma, the country’s independence hero.
Bangladesh’s army chief Waker-Uz-Zaman would address the nation on Monday afternoon, a military spokesman told AFP without giving further details.
Before the protesters had stormed the compound, Hasina’s son urged the country’s security forces to block any takeover from 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 supported Hasina’s government throughout the unrest, which began last month against civil service job quotas then escalated into wider calls for her to stand down.
But the protesters defied curfews and deadly force.
At least 94 people were killed on Sunday, including 14 police officers, in the deadliest day of the unrest.
Protesters and government supporters countrywide battled each other with sticks and knives, and security forces opened fire.
The day’s violence took the total number of people killed since protests began in early July to at least 300, according to an AFP tally based on police, government officials and doctors at hospitals.
Waker told officers on Saturday that the military “always stood by the people”, according to an official statement.
The military declared an emergency in January 2007 after widespread political unrest and installed a military-backed caretaker government for two years.
