Resignations of Bangladeshi officials close to Sheikh Hasina were legal: Yunus

The high-profile resignations of Bangladeshi officials close to ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina were legal, the interim government's head Muhammad Yunus said during the weekend. Addressing a press conference on Sunday (Aug 11) night, Yunus said, "Legally ... all the steps were taken."

Since Sheikh Hasina resigned in the face of anti-government protests against job quotas and fled to India last week, a series of high-profile resignations occurred back home.

The country’s chief justice Obaidul Hassan, five justices and central bank governor Abdur Rouf Talukder have all resigned in the past few days. Syed Refaat Ahmed became the new chief justice while the interim government is yet to appoint a new governor of the central bank.

'Previous chief justice is just a hangman'

During Sunday's press conference,Yunus said that a key priority of his interim government was to restore the independence of Bangladesh's judiciary. He calledObaidul Hassan “just a hangman.”

Student protesters have vowed to cleanse the political system of Hasina’s rule, which they have denounced as autocratic. More than 300 people, including students and police officers, were killed in the weeks of violence during the protests, a report by the news agency Associated Press said.

'A student-led revolution'

Yunus, a Nobellaureate, became the interim leaderafter student leaders reached out. He said the students told him he was the only one they could trust.

Yunus told reporters on Sundayhe accepted (the offer to lead Bangladesh) “because these are the guys who broke the local government,” describing it as a “student-led revolution.”

“It’s not my dream, it’s their dream. So I’m kind of helping them to make it come true,” he said.

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Yunus had been a longtime critic of Hasina and her government. He ran into trouble with Hasina in 2008,when her administration launched a series of investigations into him and his Grameen Bank.

He was put on trial five years lateron charges of receiving money without government permission, including his Nobel Prize and royalties from a book.

Yunus has denied the allegations, and his supporters say he was targeted because of his frosty relations with Hasina.

(With inputs from agencies)