DHAKA: Jubilant and hopeful, Bangladeshis welcomed on Friday their new interim government headed by the Nobel-winning economist Muhammad Yunus and manned by renowned lawyers, academics and leaders of the student movement that has ousted the previous regime.
The new administration took the oath of office at the presidential palace in Dhaka on Thursday night, three days after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was forced to resign and fled to neighboring India after weeks of nationwide demonstrations and a deadly crackdown on protesters.
“The brutal, autocratic regime is gone,” Yunus said in a televised address after he was sworn in by President Mohammed Shahabuddin along with more than a dozen members of his caretaker government.
He pledged that “democracy, justice, human rights, and full freedom of fearless expression will be enjoyed by all, regardless of party affiliation.”
The 84-year-old economics professor will lead the country as “chief adviser” and the titles of his Cabinet members advisers too, not ministers.
They include Nahid Islam and Asif Mahmud, top leaders of Students Against Discrimination, a group that led the protests that toppled Hasina, and civil servants such as former attorney general A.F. Hassan Ariff, former foreign secretary Touhid Hossain, and Salehuddin Ahmed — economist and a former governor of the country’s central bank.
There are also Adilur Rahman Khan, a prominent human rights activist, Syeda Rizwana Hasan, an international award-winning environmental lawyer, and Asif Nazrul, a public intellectual, writer and professor of law at Dhaka University.
As the new administration took office, Bangladeshis were enthusiastic about the nominations and hopeful for their country’s future.
“After our total anarchy and a very serious uprising that we experienced very recently, this is a new dynamic,” Gautam Barua, an academic and researcher, told Arab News.
“I’m very hopeful, very, very much hopeful about this interim government ... I think they will bring about a beautiful change.”
He was glad to see that famous lawyers and economists would be at the helm.
“This cabinet, I think, has the finest of the fine of the country ... they are globally recognized, and they are domestically, nationally, recognized,” Barua said.
“The country’s present economy needs a notch ... It has gone down quite drastically in the last government’s regime. So, I believe they can notch it up. They can turn the wheel of the economy.”
There was also pride in having a government full of celebrity intellectuals and technocrats.
“I think they can bring us a positive change,” said Mahfuz Kaiser, a student in Dhaka. “Dr. Yunus is a very famous person. He’s a Nobel laureate. First Nobel winner in Bangladesh.”
An economics professor, Yunus is a social entrepreneur and banker who was awarded the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for his pioneering microfinance work that helped alleviate poverty in Bangladesh and has been widely adopted around the world.
“He’s going to help us to build this nation again,” said Jannatul Ferdous Mawa, who is pursuing a degree in media studies and participated in the recent protests.
“I think whatever is happening right now, it’s good for us because we are learning something. From this protest, we learned one thing: that if we are together, we can build this nation again.”
Political transition in Bangladesh, ending 15 years of Hasina’s rule, comes after nationwide protests that began in early July against a quota system for government jobs, which was widely criticized for favoring those with connections to the ruling party.
The demonstrations soon turned violent as security forces clashed with demonstrators, leaving at least 300 people dead.
After the deadly clashes and a week-long communications blackout, the Supreme Court eventually scrapped most of the quotas, but the ruling was followed by a crackdown on protesters.
The arrests of 11,000 participants of the rallies, mostly students, triggered new demonstrations last week, which culminated in a civil disobedience movement, which on Monday forced Hasina to resign.
A day later, the president dissolved the parliament, clearing the way for the interim administration, which now will preside over new elections.
“There are lots of expectations from this government because this government is headed by the Nobel laureate Prof. Dr. Yunus. I think everyone is looking forward to his work, to his progress, to his visions. He used to say that there are three zeros: zero poverty, zero unemployment and zero net carbon. So, I think he will work on these three issues,” Dr. Rawnak Khan, who teaches anthropology at Dhaka University, told Arab News.
“Our institutional infrastructure, the whole situation, we need to build it up. The government needs to ensure transparency, accountability. My expectation of this government is very high. Not only mine, I think everyone’s, because it is headed by Prof. Yunus and it depends on his ability to navigate the complex political landscape of Bangladesh.”
High hopes in Bangladesh as Nobel-winning economist takes charge
https://arab.news/wgk9j
High hopes in Bangladesh as Nobel-winning economist takes charge
- Muhammad Yunus heads the interim government after a student-led uprising ousted former PM Sheikh Hasina
- Among members of his cabinet are top Bangladeshi technocrats, lawyers and leaders of the student movement
What to know about the search for the Brown University shooting suspect
- The video from more than hour before the attack shows the suspect running at times in quiet residential streets near campus
PROVIDENCE, R.I.: With the Brown University shooter still on the loose Tuesday, authorities released new video of a suspect and police fanned out to Providence schools to reassure parents, kids and teachers as investigators pushed for new evidence that might help them crack the case.
Here’s a look at what to know about the attack and the search:
Search on after new video and description of suspect
Authorities released a video timeline and a slightly clearer image of the man suspected in Saturday’s attack in an engineering building classroom, where two students were killed and nine were wounded. The video from more than hour before the attack shows the suspect running at times in quiet residential streets near campus.
In videos previously made public, the suspect’s face was masked or turned away and authorities were only able to give a vague description of him as having a stocky build and about 5 feet, 8 inches (173 centimeters) tall.
The gunman fired more than 40 rounds from a 9 mm handgun, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the investigation publicly.
Police have asked the public for tips, and said they had received about 200 by Tuesday. Col. Oscar Perez, the Providence police chief, asked the public Tuesday to look at their camera systems in the area where the person was walking to review any footage that goes back a week.
Authorities on Sunday released a different person of interest after determining he wasn’t behind the attack, which happened in a first-floor classroom where students were cramming for an exam. Providence police spokeswoman Kristy dosReis said the man’s detention didn’t affect the ongoing investigation.
Police fan out to local schools
Tensions remain high in Providence. Ten state troopers were assigned to support the local police sent to beef up security at schools, district Superintendent Javier Montañez said. The district said it canceled after-school activities, sporting events and field trips this week “out of an abundance of caution.”
The attack and the shooter’s escape also have raised questions about campus security, including a lack of security cameras, and led to calls for better locks on campus doors. But some said what they called the real issue needs to be addressed.
“The issue isn’t the doors, it’s the guns,” said Zoe Kass, a senior who fled the engineering building Saturday.
Authorities have said that one reason they lacked video of the shooter was because Brown’s older engineering building doesn’t have many cameras.
University defends response
Brown President Christina Paxson defended the university’s response, saying it was deeply committed to the safety, security and well-being of its students. She also said the campus is equipped with 1,200 cameras.
“I have been deeply saddened by people questioning that,” she said Tuesday. “As time goes on, there is a natural instinct to assign responsibility for tragic events like this. Anxiety here is very natural, but the shooter is responsible.”
Paxson said the university has two security systems. One system is activated at a time of emergency and sent out text messages, phone calls and emails that, in this shooting, reached 20,000 individuals. The other system features three sirens across campus, but Paxson said that would not be activated in an active shooter situation.
“Those get activated when there is a broad scale emergency, and we want people to rush into buildings,” she said. “In the case of an active shooter, activating that system could have caused people to rush into Barus and Holley.”
When pressed by a reporter who noted the university website says the sirens can be used when there is an active shooter, Paxson reaffirmed she didn’t think it would be used in that situation.
“It depends on the circumstances and where the active shooter would be but you don’t want to ever get people rushing into buildings that might be the site of an active shooter,” she said.
Details about the victims emerge
Two of the wounded students had been released from the hospital as of Tuesday, Brown spokeswoman Amanda McGregor said. Of the seven others, one remained in critical condition, five were in critical but stable condition and one was in stable condition, Providence Mayor Brett Smiley said.
One of the wounded, 18-year-old freshman Spencer Yang of New York City, told the New York Times and the Brown Daily Herald there was a scramble after the gunman entered the room. Yang said he wound up on the ground and was shot in the leg.
The students who died were MukhammadAziz Umurzokov, an 18-year-old freshman from Brandermill, Virginia, and Ella Cook, a 19-year-old sophomore from a suburb of Birmingham, Alabama.
Jacob Spears, 18, a freshman from Evans, Georgia, was shot in the stomach, “but through sheer adrenaline and courage, he managed to run outside, where he was aided by others,” according to a GoFundMe site organized for him.
Durham Academy, a private K-12 school in Durham, North Carolina, confirmed that a recent graduate, Kendall Turner, was wounded.
