Dhaka: According to a presidential official on Sunday, Bangladesh’s new chief justice was sworn in after his predecessor, who was seen as a supporter of ousted premier Sheikh Hasina, resigned in response to demands from protestors.
This appointment is the most recent in a series of new ones made to replace an old guard that the student-led rebellion was thought to have ties to the former regime.
President Mohammed Shahabuddin swore in Syed Refaat Ahmed, the most senior high court judge, according to the president’s press secretary, Shiplu Zaman. According to Zaman, “He became the 25th Chief Justice of Bangladesh.”
Ahmed attended Tufts University, Oxford University, and the University of Dhaka in the United States.
Following hundreds of demonstrators who gathered outside the court to demand that Ahmed step down, Obaidul Hassan, Ahmed’s predecessor, became the latest to announce his departure on Saturday.
The US is allegedly behind Sheikh Hasina’s ouster as the interim government attempts to curb violence.
Hassan was appointed last year; his brother served as Hasina’s longstanding secretary. Hassan had previously presided over a highly criticized war crimes tribunal that had mandated the killing of Hasina’s opponents.
Minority-related attacks
Following the resignation of former premier Sheikh Hasina, attacks against Hindus and other religious minorities were recorded. against Sunday, the new interim administration of Bangladesh claimed it was trying to address these incidents.
In Bangladesh, Hindus make up the largest minority. They are seen as a solid basis of support for the Awami League, Hasina’s political party.
Following Hasina’s sudden resignation and departure on Monday, her 15-year reign came to an abrupt end. Numerous accounts surfaced of attacks against Hindu homes, temples, and businesses.
In order to find solutions to such horrific crimes, the cabinet declared that it would “immediately sit with the representative bodies and other concerned groups.”
Numerous pressing issues were outlined in the statement released on Sunday by the self-described “council of advisors” in charge of guiding democratic reforms in the 170 million-person South Asian country.
Under the direction of Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel Peace laureate, the government issued an order providing “support” to the families of protestors slain during the weeks-long protests that culminated in Hasina’s resignation.
It instructed the use of public funds to cover the medical expenses of individuals hurt during the July-starting disturbance, which claimed over 450 lives.
Hasina accuses the US of removing her.
Sheikh Hasina, the former prime minister of Bangladesh who is currently living in India, has charged that the US was involved in her ouster from office.
Hasina asserted that she could have continued to hold power if she had been prepared to jeopardize Bangladesh’s sovereignty, notably by ceding Saint Martin Island and granting the US control over the Bay of Bengal, in a statement that was cited by the Economic Times.
“I gave up my job to avoid witnessing the corona of deceased individuals. The former prime minister of Bangladesh declared, “I did not allow them to come to power over the dead bodies of students.”
“I could still be in power if I had given up Saint Martin Island’s sovereignty and let America rule the Bay of Bengal,” Hasina said, pleading with her people not to fall for radical tactics.
Situated close to Bangladesh’s southernmost point, Saint Martin Island is a tiny landmass of 3 square kilometers in the Bay of Bengal.
Hasina offered her sincere condolences for the violence and chaos that followed her August 5 resignation, which coincided with escalating student demonstrations against the divisive government job quota system.
Hasina had before charged that the US was trying to set up a regime transition in Bangladesh during a parliamentary session.
Although he didn’t specifically mention the US, her son Sajeeb Wazed Joy expressed similar worries, speculating that a foreign intelligence agency was probably behind the latest protests.
He praised New Delhi for sparing her mother’s life, charged that interim officials were permitting “mob rule,” and warned that if quick elections were not held, pandemonium would follow.
