- Interim government adviser urges protesters to remain peaceful
- The resignation of the governor of the Central Bank, Abdur Rouf, is “not accepted”
- Four deputy governors forced to resign after protests days earlier.
Bangladesh's chief justice and central bank governor have resigned, officials announced Saturday, while student protests that forced Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to flee have widened to target more officials appointed during her tenure.
Chief Justice Obaidul Hassan has resigned, Law Ministry adviser Asif Nazrul said in a video post on Facebook, after students warned him of “dire consequences” if he did not. Reuters We were unable to immediately contact Hassan.
Nazrul, an adviser to the new interim government, urged protesters to remain peaceful. “Do not damage any public property,” he said in the post.
Bangladesh Bank Governor Abdur Rouf Talukder also resigned, but his resignation was not accepted given the importance of the post, Finance Ministry Adviser Salehuddin Ahmed told reporters. Reuters Talukder could not be contacted.
Days earlier, four deputy governors were forced to resign after 300 to 400 bank officials protested against what they said was corruption by senior officials.
Dhaka University Vice Chancellor ASM Maksud Kamal has also resigned, the university said. Reuters Kamal could not be contacted.
The university has been the epicentre of deadly protests that escalated in July against quotas in government jobs before morphing into a campaign to oust Hasina.
Hasina has been holed up in New Delhi since Monday following the uprising that killed about 300 people, many of them students, ending her 15-year uninterrupted rule in the South Asian nation of 170 million people.
Since his departure, the country has also seen the appointment of a new police chief as part of a security shake-up that also included a new head of the technical intelligence monitoring agency and changes among senior military officials.
