Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina ousted, lands in Tripura’s Agartala amid unrest: Report

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has reportedly fled the country amid the deadly protests over a special job quota and landed in Tripura's capital Agartala in India on Monday. 

Sheikh Hasina and her younger sister Sheikh Rehana departed from Bangabhaban on a helicopter around 2:30 pm on Monday. They reached a safe location, news agency AFP reported. According to Hindustan Times, she landed in Agartala and is likely to fly to London.

Local media reports suggest that the Bangladesh Prime Minister has already resigned from the post.

Amid speculations about Hasina's resignation from her post, Bangladesh's Chief of Army Staff General Waker-Uz-Zaman confirmed that she left the country after resigning from her post. Zaman also announced that an interim government, with the participation of all parties, will be formed soon.

“After holding a fruitful discussion with all political parties, we have decided to form an interim government. We will speak with President Mohammed Shahabuddin now to resolve the situation," Waker-Uz-Zaman was quoted by Dhaka Tribune as saying.

Reports claim that Sheikh Hasina intended to record a speech before her departure but did not get the opportunity to do so.

Police said at least 300 people died in anti-government protest in Bangladesh, AFP cited police and doctors as saying. On Monday, protesters storm the prime minister's palace.

A widespread Bangladesh internet shutdown was also reported after the deadly protests. However, Broadband and 4G internet services were restored in the violence-hit country on Sunday afternoon.

Internet outage monitor NetBlocks reported "high impact to mobile networks", while an internet gateway company that sells wholesale bandwidth to service providers said "broadband and mobile internet were shut down".

In his speech on Sunday, Waker-Uz-Zaman called for a halt to the ongoing violence in name of protest and promised that the new government will ensure justice for all the deaths that took place during the Anti-Discriminatory Student Movement.

Why are students protesting in Bangladesh

The student protests were initially a reaction to the High Court reinstating a controversial government jobs quota system, which gives preferential treatment to families of veterans who fought in Bangladesh’s war of independence from Pakistan in 1971. The Supreme Court later rolled back the system.

The protests had begun peacefully as frustrated students demanded an end to a quota system for government jobs, but the demonstrations have since morphed into an unprecedented challenge and uprising against Hasina and her ruling Awami League party.