Bangladesh’s Nobel Peace Prize winning economist Muhammad Yunus was sworn in as the head of the country’s caretaker government on Thursday after weeks of student-led protests forced Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to resign and flee to India.
“It’s good to be back home,” said the 84-year-old after touching down at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in the capital, Dhaka, on Thursday on a flight from Paris via Dubai.
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Yunus was picked by President Mohammed Shahabuddin to lead an interim government, fulfilling a key demand of the student protest leaders.
Yunus was expected to head first to a meeting with the president and army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman before an oath-taking ceremony at 8.30pm (14:30 GMT), at which he is expected to announce his new Cabinet.
Yunus will be the chief adviser in the interim government tasked with holding fresh elections in the South Asian country of 170 million people.
The student-led movement that ousted Hasina grew out of protests against quotas in government jobs that spiralled in July, provoking a violent crackdown that drew global criticism, although the government denied using excessive force.
The protests were fuelled also by harsh economic conditions and political repression in the country.
