Sheikh Hasina, who resigned as Bangladesh’s prime minister and fled the country on Monday after weeks of protests, has been one of the dominant figures in its politics since the assassination of her father, independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, nearly half a century ago. century.
Her defection came less than seven months after she celebrated her fourth consecutive term in power – and fifth overall – by sweeping national elections in January that were boycotted by the main opposition.
The 76-year-old was flown in a military helicopter on Monday along with her sister to flee to India, media reported.
Her last 15 years in power have been marked by arrests of opposition leaders, crackdowns on free speech and a crackdown on dissent, and she resigned in the face of deadly student protests that have killed hundreds.
The protests began in June after demands by student groups to scrap a controversial quota system for government posts escalated into a movement seeking the end of her rule.
Her political career was rooted in bloodshed.
Her father, who led Bangladesh’s struggle for independence from Pakistan in 1971, was murdered along with her family in a military coup in 1975. She was fortunate to be visiting Europe at the time.
Born in 1947 in southwestern Bangladesh, then East Pakistan, Hasina was the eldest of five children. She graduated in Bengali Literature from Dhaka University in 1973 and gained political experience as a mediator for her father and his student followers.
they are looking for an interim government headed by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus.
He returned to Bangladesh from India, where he lived in exile, in 1981 and was elected head of the Awami League.
Hasina later joined hands with political foe Khaleda Zia, leader of the rival Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), to lead a popular uprising for democracy that ousted military ruler Hossain Mohammad Ershad from power in 1990.
But the alliance with Zia didn’t last long, and the bitter rivalry between the two women – often called “battles” – continued to dominate Bangladeshi politics for decades.
Increasingly authoritarian rule
Hasina first led her Awami League party to victory in 1996, serving a five-year term before regaining power in 2009, never losing it again.
As time passed, she became increasingly authoritarian and her rule was marked by mass arrests of political opponents and activists, enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings.
Rights groups have warned of virtual one-party rule by the Awami League.
Zia, herself a former prime minister and the widow of Ziaur Rahman, a former president of Bangladesh who was assassinated in 1981, was jailed in 2018 on bribery charges that the opposition says were trumped up. She was banned from political activity.
The BNP and rights groups say Hasina’s government has arrested 10,000 opposition party workers on trumped-up charges ahead of January elections, which the opposition boycotted.
Hasina refused the BNP’s demands that she step down and allow a neutral authority to conduct the elections.
Both she and her opponents have accused each other of trying to create chaos and violence to endanger the democracy that has yet to take firm root in the country of 170 million people.
Despite criticism over her years in power, Hasina has been credited with turning around the economy and a huge garment industry, while winning international praise for providing refuge to Rohingya Muslims fleeing persecution in neighboring Myanmar.
But the economy has also slowed sharply since the Russia-Ukraine war drove up fuel and food import prices, forcing Bangladesh to turn to the International Monetary Fund last year for a $4.7 billion bailout.
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