Bangladesh protesters call for new govt under Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus

Bangladesh student protest coordinators have called for the formation of a new interim government with Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus as its chief adviser, according to a video released by the coordinators on Facebook.

Student leaders, who spearheaded a movement against job quotas that turned into a call for Sheikh Hasina to resign, said early on Tuesday that they want a new interim government with Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus as its chief adviser.

"Any government other than the one we recommended would not be accepted," Nahid Islam, one of the organisers of the student movement, said in a video on Facebook with three other organisers.

"We wouldn't accept any army-supported or army-led government."

"We have also had discussions with Muhammad Yunus and he has agreed to take on this responsibility at our invitation," Islam added.

Yunus is a Bangladeshi social entrepreneur, banker, economist and civil society leader who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for founding the Grameen Bank and pioneering the concepts of microcredit and microfinance.

Yunus told Indian media on Monday that Hasina's ouster by student-led protests "is like a second liberation for the people of Bangladesh."

"We were an occupied country as long as she (Hasina) was there. She was behaving like an occupation force, a dictator, a general, controlling everything. Today all the people of Bangladesh feel liberated."

The demand comes after PM Hasina resigned and fled the country to India, ending her 15-year rule amid deadly protests.

Bangladesh's Army Chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman said in a broadcast to the nation on state television that Hasina had resigned and the military would form a caretaker government.

"The country has suffered a lot, the economy has been hit, many people have been killed — it is time to stop the violence," said Waker, shortly after jubilant crowds stormed and looted Hasina's official residence.

Zaman plans to meet the protest coordinators at 12 pm local time (0600 GMT) on Tuesday, the army separately said in a statement.

Weeks of unrest

Zaman said he had held talks with leaders of major political parties — excluding Hasina's long-ruling Awami League — to discuss the way ahead and was due to hold talks with the President Mohammed Shahabuddin .

An interim government will hold elections as soon as possible after consulting all parties and stakeholders, President Shahabuddin said in a televised address late on Monday.

The weeks of protests had begun peacefully as frustrated students demanded an end to a quota system for government jobs, but they turned into an unprecedented uprising against Hasina and her ruling Awami League party.

Anger also lingered from January's election, which saw the jailing of thousands of opposition members.

The government responded to the protests with force, leaving nearly 300 people dead and fuelling further outrage.

Bangladesh has a long history of coups.

The military declared an emergency in January 2007 after widespread political unrest and installed a military-backed caretaker government for two years.

Hasina then ruled Bangladesh from 2009 and won her fourth consecutive election in January after a vote without genuine opposition.

Rights groups accused her government of misusing state institutions to entrench its hold on power and stamp out dissent, including through the extrajudicial killing of opposition activists.