Bangladesh PM flees as protesters storm palace

DHAKA

Thousands of Bangladeshi protesters stormed the palace of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in Dhaka Monday after a source told AFP she had fled mass demonstrations demanding she quit.

Bangladesh's Channel 24 broadcast images of crowds running into the premier's official residence in the capital, waving to the camera as they celebrated.

Jubilant looking crowds waved flags, celebrating, including some dancing on top of a tank, as a source close to the embattled leader said she had left her palace in the capital for a "safer place".

Hasina's son urged the country's security forces to block any takeover from her rule, while a senior advisor told AFP that her resignation was a "possibility" after being questioned as to whether she would quit.

"She wanted to record a speech, but she could not get an opportunity to do that," the source close to Hasina told AFP.

Bangladesh's army chief Waker-Uz-Zaman will address the nation on Monday afternoon, a military spokesman told AFP without giving further details.

Waker told officers on Saturday that the military "always stood by the people", according to an official statement.

The military declared an emergency in January 2007 after widespread political unrest and installed a military-backed caretaker government for two years.

  'Uphold the constitution' 

Rallies that began last month against civil service job quotas have escalated into some of the worst unrest of Hasina's 15-year rule and shifted into wider calls for the 76-year-old to leave.

"Your duty is to keep our people safe and our country safe and to uphold the constitution," her son, US-based Sajeeb Wazed Joy, said in a post on Facebook.

"It means don't allow any unelected government to come in power for one minute, it is your duty."

But protesters on Monday defied security forces enforcing a curfew, marching on the capital's streets after the deadliest day of unrest since demonstrations erupted last month.

Internet access was tightly restricted on Monday, offices were closed and more than 3,500 factories servicing Bangladesh's economically vital garment industry were shut.

Soldiers and police with armoured vehicles in Dhaka had barricaded routes to Hasina's office with barbed wire, AFP reporters said, but vast crowds flooded the streets, tearing down barriers.

The Business Standard newspaper estimated as many as 400,000 protesters were on the streets but it was impossible to verify the figure.

"The time has come for the final protest," said Asif Mahmud, one of the key leaders in the nationwide civil disobedience campaign.

  'Shocking violence' 

At least 94 people were killed on Sunday, including 14 police officers.

Protesters and government supporters countrywide battled each other with sticks and knives, and security forces opened fire.

The day's violence took the total number of people killed since protests began in early July to at least 300, according to an AFP tally based on police, government officials and doctors at hospitals.

"The shocking violence in Bangladesh must stop," United Nations rights chief Volker Turk said in a statement.

"This is an unprecedented popular uprising by all measures," said Ali Riaz, an Illinois State University politics professor and expert on Bangladesh.

"Also, the ferocity of the state actors and regime loyalists is unmatched in history."

Protesters in Dhaka on Sunday were seen climbing a statue of Hasina's father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the country's independence leader, and smashing it with hammers, according to videos on social media verified by AFP.

  'Walls are closing in' 

In several cases, soldiers and police did not intervene to stem Sunday's protests, unlike during the past month of rallies that repeatedly ended in deadly crackdowns.

"Let's be clear: The walls are closing in on Hasina: She's rapidly losing support and legitimacy," Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at the Washington-based Wilson Center, told AFP.

"The protests have taken on immense momentum, fuelled by raw anger but also by the confidence that comes with knowing that so much of the nation is behind them," he said.

In a hugely symbolic rebuke of Hasina, a respected former army chief demanded the government "immediately" withdraw troops and allow protests.

"Those who are responsible for pushing people of this country to a state of such an extreme misery will have to be brought to justice," ex-army chief General Ikbal Karim Bhuiyan told reporters Sunday.

The anti-government movement has attracted people from across society in the South Asian nation of about 170 million people, including film stars, musicians and singers.

Hasina has ruled Bangladesh since 2009 and won her fourth consecutive election in January after a vote without genuine opposition.

Her government is accused by rights groups of misusing state institutions to entrench its hold on power and stamp out dissent, including through the extrajudicial killing of opposition activists.

Demonstrations began over the reintroduction of a quota scheme that reserved more than half of all government jobs for certain groups.

The protests have escalated despite the scheme having been scaled back by Bangladesh's top court.