Jubilant looking crowds waved flags on the streets of Dhaka
Thousands of Bangladeshi protesters defied curfew and stormed the Prime Minister’s palace in capital Dhaka after reports surfaced that Sheikh Hasina has resigned and left the country.
Jubilant looking crowds waved flags on the streets of Dhaka, before hundreds broke through the gates of Sheikh Hasina’s official residence.
The crowd also vandalised Ms Hasina’s father and former Bangladesh President Sheikh Mujibur Rahman statue in Dhaka.
Soldiers and police with armoured vehicles in Dhaka had barricaded routes to Ms Hasina’s office with barbed wire, AFP reporters said, but vast crowds flooded the streets, tearing down barriers.
Local media estimated as many as 400,000 protesters were on the streets but it was impossible to verify the figure.
At least 98 people were killed yesterday, including 14 police officers, in the deadliest day of the unrest. The day’s violence took the total number of people killed since protests began in early July to at least 300.
Rallies that began last month against civil service job quotas have escalated into some of the worst unrest of Prime Minister Hasina’s 15-year rule and shifted into wider calls for the 76-year-old to step down.
