Pakistan expresses solidarity with people of Bangladesh, hopes for ‘peaceful return to normalcy’

Pakistan on Wednesday expressed solidarity with the people of Bangladesh and hoped for a “peaceful and swift return to normalcy” after deadly protests led to the end former prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s rule two days ago.

“The government and people of Pakistan stand in solidarity with the people of Bangladesh, sincerely hoping for a peaceful and swift return to normalcy,” the Foreign Office (FO) said in a statement.

“We are confident that the resilient spirit and unity of the Bangladeshi people will lead them towards a harmonious future,” it added.

The statement comes as a caretaker government is expected to be formed under the leadership of Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus after student protest leaders asked him to do so.

The movement that toppled Hasina rose out of protests against public sector job quotas for families of veterans of Bangladesh’s 1971 independence war, seen by critics as a means to reserve jobs for allies of the ruling Awami League party.

More than 400 people have died since July as security forces sought to quell the unrest but the protests grew and Hasina finally resigned and fled aboard a helicopter on Monday after the military turned against her.

Hasina flew to India and is staying at a safe house outside New Delhi.

Bangladesh’s army chief General Wakeruz Zaman announced on Monday that the military would form an interim government, saying it was “time to stop the violence”.

The next day, President Mohammed Shahabuddin dissolved parliament today — a key demand of the student leaders and the major opposition Bangladesh National Party (BNP), which has demanded elections within three months.

Hasina’s arch-rival, BNP chairperson and former prime minister Begum Khaleda Zia, was also freed from years of house arrest.

Streets in Dhaka were largely peaceful on Tuesday — with traffic resuming and shops opening, but government offices mainly closed.

Chaotic violence on Monday had seen more than 100 people killed — the deadliest day since protests began in early July.

A further 10 people were killed on Tuesday, taking the total toll to at least 432, according to an AFP tally based on police, government officials and doctors at hospitals.

The Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council (BHBCUC) has said 200-300 mainly Hindu homes and businesses have been vandalised since Monday, and 15-20 Hindu temples were damaged.

The student leaders also said that they had received reports of attacks on minority groups, including Hindu temples, in the Muslim-majority country, and urged restraint as this could undermine their movement.

India, West urge ‘calm’

India’s foreign minister S. Jaishankar told parliament on Tuesday that New Delhi had repeatedly “counselled restraint and urged situation to be defused through dialogue”.

Stating he was “deeply concerned till law and order is visibly restored” in Bangladesh, Jaishankar said India had assured Hasina of its help and given her time to decide the future course of action, the Press Trust of India (PTI) reported quoting sources.

India also said what was “particularly worrying was that minorities, their businesses and temples also came under attack at multiple locations”.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stressed the importance of a “peaceful, orderly and democratic transition”, his spokesman had said.

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell echoed that call. Similarly, former colonial ruler Britain, along with the United States, had urged “calm”.