\n Bangladesh's interim leader Muhammad Yunus appealed for religious unity Saturday after embracing the weeping mother of a student shot dead by police, a flashpoint in mass protests that ended Sheikh Hasina's 15-year rule.\n<\/p>\n
\n Nobel laureate Yunus, 84, returned from Europe this week to helm a temporary administration facing the monumental challenge of ending disorder and enacting democratic reforms.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Our responsibility is to build a new Bangladesh,\" he told reporters.\n<\/p>\n
\n Several reprisal attacks against the country's Hindu minority since autocratic ex-premier Hasina's toppling have caused alarm in neighbouring India as well as fear at home.\n<\/p>\n
\n Yunus called for calm during a visit to the northern city of Rangpur by invoking the memory of Abu Sayeed, the first student slain during last month's unrest.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Don't differentiate by religion\", he said.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Abu Sayeed is now in every home. The way he stood, we have to do the same,\" he added. \"There are no differences in Abu Sayeed's Bangladesh.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n Sayeed, 25, was shot dead by police at close range on July 16 at the start of a police crackdown on student-led protests against Hasina's government.\n<\/p>\n
\n His mother sobbed as she clung to a visibly emotional Yunus, who had come to pay his respects alongside members of the \"advisory\" cabinet now administering the country.\n<\/p>\n
\n Fellow cabinet member Nahid Islam, a 26-year-old sociology graduate who led the protests that culminated in Hasina's ouster, wept by the leader's side.\n<\/p>\n
\n - Allies purged -\n<\/p>\n
\n Hasina, 76, fled by helicopter to neighbouring India on Monday as protesters flooded Dhaka's streets in a dramatic end to her iron-fisted rule.\n<\/p>\n
\n Her government was accused of widespread human rights abuses including the extrajudicial killing of thousands of her political opponents.\n<\/p>\n
\n Cabinet ministers left blindsided by her sudden fall have gone to ground, while several top appointees have been forced out of office -- including the national police chief and the central bank governor.\n<\/p>\n
\n The chief justice of the Supreme Court became on Saturday the latest to announce his departure.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"It's not possible anymore for me to perform the duty,\" Obaidul Hassan said in a statement. \"Therefore, I have decided to resign.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n Appointed last year, Hassan earlier oversaw a much-criticised war crimes tribunal that ordered the execution of Hasina's opponents, and his brother was her longtime secretary.\n<\/p>\n
\n His announcement came after hundreds of protesters gathered outside the court to demand he and other judges step down by the early afternoon.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"No one should do anything that pits the Supreme Court against the mass uprising of the students and the people,\" Asif Nazrul, a student protest leader now serving in Yunus' government, told reporters.\n<\/p>\n
\n - 'Safety and protection' -\n<\/p>\n
\n In the immediate aftermath of Hasina's fall, some businesses and homes owned by Hindus were attacked, a group seen by some in Muslim-majority Bangladesh as having been her supporters.\n<\/p>\n
\n Bangladeshi Hindus account for around eight percent of the country's population.\n<\/p>\n
\n Hundreds have since arrived on India's border, asking to cross.\n<\/p>\n
\n Hasina's flight has heightened rancour towards India, which played a decisive military role in securing Bangladesh's independence, but also backed her to the hilt.\n<\/p>\n
\n Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday urged \"safety and protection of Hindus and all other minority communities\".\n<\/p>\n
\n More than 450 people were killed in the unrest leading up to Hasina's departure, including dozens of police officers killed during clampdowns on demonstrations.\n<\/p>\n
\n The caretaker administration Yunus helms has said that restoration of law and order is its \"first priority\".\n<\/p>\n
\n Complicating its efforts is a strike declared Tuesday by the police union, saying its members would not return to work until their safety was assured.\n<\/p>\n
\n Bangladesh's police force said more than half of the country's police stations had since reopened.\n<\/p>\n
\n They are being guarded by soldiers from the army, an institution held in higher public regard than the police for opting not to forcibly quell the protests.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"We are happy that police are returning to their duty,\" university pupil Umar Faruk, 22, told AFP.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Police are needed to maintain law and order. But it's also a matter of concern for us whether the police can gain the trust of the people.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n Two attempted jailbreaks were staged at prisons north of the capital Dhaka this week, with more than 200 inmates fleeing one facility.\n<\/p>\n
\n Yunus won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for his pioneering work in microfinance, credited with helping millions of Bangladeshis out of grinding poverty.\n<\/p>\n
\n He took office Thursday as \"chief advisor\" to a caretaker administration, comprised of fellow civilians bar one retired brigadier-general, and has said he wants to hold elections \"within a few months\".<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bangladesh's interim leader Muhammad Yunus appealed for religious unity Saturday after embracing the weeping mother of a student shot dead by police, a flashpoint in mass protests that ended Sheikh Hasina's 15-year rule. Nobel laureate Yunus, 84, returned from Europe this week to helm a temporary administration facing the monumental challenge of ending disorder and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-135027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n