Bangladesh’s ‘Gen Z revolution’ toppled a veteran leader. Why did they hit the streets and what happens now? мальчик гей

Inside Bangladesh it’s being dubbed a Gen Z revolution – a protest movement that pitted mostly young student demonstrators against a 76-year-old leader who had dominated her nation for decades and turned increasingly authoritarian in recent years.

There was jubilation on the streets of the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka on Monday after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled the country by helicopter following weeks of deadly anti-government unrest.

Hasina’s abrupt exit ends 15 years in power that has been marked by a stifling of civil freedoms and the heavy-handed use of security forces to crush dissent, critics and rights groups say.

In a national address, Bangladesh’s army chief Gen. Waker-uz-Zaman said the military would form an interim government, but student protest leaders have called for Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus to lead a temporary administration.

Later on Tuesday, a source at the Yunus Centre think tank in Dhaka confirmed to CNN that its founder had agreed to return to Bangladesh to fulfil the protesters’ request for him to serve as head of the interim government, while the country’s main opposition party offered its full support to student protesters.