Nobel winner Muhammad Yunus to lead Bangladesh interim government

Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, who is a longtime political foe of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, has been named the country’s interim leader.

The appointment of the 84-year-old as chief adviser of the interim government comes a day after Ms Hasina fled the country after weeks of deadly unrest.

While Prof Yunus has been lauded for his pioneering use of microloans, Ms Hasina has regarded him as a public enemy and a local court recently handed him a jail term in what he described as a politically-motivated case.

Students who led the protests said they would not accept a military-led government and had pushed for Prof Yunus to lead the interim administration.

The decision to name Prof Yunus as chief adviser came after a meeting between President Mohammed Shahabuddin, military leaders, and student leaders.

“When the students who sacrificed so much are requesting me to step in at this difficult juncture, how can I refuse?” Prof Yunus had said.

He is returning to Dhaka from Paris where he is undergoing a minor medical procedure, his spokesperson said.

In 1983, Prof Yunus started Grameen Bank, which offers small, long-term loans to help poor people start their own small businesses. The concept has since taken off around the world.

In 2006, Prof Yunus and the bank were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

He is known internationally as the “banker to the poor”, but Ms Hasina had described him a “bloodsucker” of the poor and accused his bank of charging exorbitant interest rates.

In January, Prof Yunus was sentenced to six months in jail for violating the country’s labour laws by failing to create a welfare fund for their workers.

His supporters had said the case was politically motivated, while Prof Yunus, who is appealing the verdict, had said it was “contrary to all legal precedent and logic”.

There have also been other cases against him, including tax evasion and serving at Grameen Bank beyond the mandatory retirement age – but Prof Yunus and his lawyer maintain that these are baseless.

The protests began in early July with peaceful demands from university students to abolish quotas in civil service jobs, but snowballed into a broader anti-government movement.

In all, more than 400 people are believed to have died in clashes between government forces and protesters.

On Monday alone, more than 100 people died in violent clashes across the country, making it the single deadliest day since the protests began last month. Hundreds of police stations were also torched.

As protesters stormed and looted the prime minister’s official residence, Ms Hasina fled neighbouring India, ending nearly 15 years of rule.

Prominent opposition figures jailed under her rule, including ex-prime minister Khaleda Zia and activist Ahmad Bin Quasem, have since been released.

Ms Zia chairs the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which boycotted elections in 2014 and again in 2024, saying free and fair elections were not possible under Ms Hasina.

The 78-year-old served as prime minister of Bangladesh from 1991 to 1996, but was imprisoned in 2018 for corruption, although she claims the charges were politically motivated.

Rights groups say Mr Quasem was taken away by security forces in 2016, just one of hundreds of forced disappearances in the country under Ms Hasina’s rule.

Across the border in India, Foreign Minister S Jaishankar said he was “deeply concerned till law and order is visibly restored” in Bangladesh, with which India shares a 4,096-km (2,545-mile) border and has close economic and cultural ties.

He gave the first official confirmation that Ms Hasina had made a request to travel to India at “very short notice” and subsequently arrived in Delhi.

India also deployed additional troops along its border with Bangladesh.

“Our border guarding forces have also been instructed to be exceptionally alert in view of this complex situation,” Mr Jaishankar said.

Foreign leaders have called on Bangladesh to uphold democracy after Prof Yunus’ appointment.

“Any decisions that the interim government makes, they need to respect democratic principles… to uphold the rule of law [and] reflect the will of the people,” said US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Australian foreign minister Penny Wong called on all parties to refrain from violence and “respect universal rights”.

“We urge a full and independent and impartial investigation into the events in recent weeks,” she added.