Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus returns to Bangladesh to take charge

The 84-year-old will be sworn in hours later as leader of an interim government after former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s more than 15 years of continuous rule came to an abrupt end this week. Yunus was greeted at the Dhaka airport by Bangladesh’s Army Chief Gen. Waker-Uz-Zaman and other top military brass and immediately huddled for talks with the military leader and student protest leaders.

Hasina resigned and fled the country on Monday after weeks of tumultuous protest that began over recruitment for government jobs and snowballed into a broader rejection of her increasingly autocratic rule.

Upon arrival, Yunus congratulated students for their successful uprising and for safeguarding the country.

“This is a day of pride," said Yunus. “Through a revolution Bangladesh is marking a second liberation."

He also expressed sadness over the death of one of the first students to be killed in the protests—a shooting captured in a mobile phone video and widely viewed in the country. Because of the student’s brave example, Yunus said, the people of Bangladesh stood up.

Yunus implored Bangladeshis to stay calm and avoid attacks on perceived enemies. “We are one family," he said. “If we travel forward together we can create a beautiful country."

Fearing for their own safety, police haven’t been patrolling the streets for much of this week. Deadly clashes on Sunday killed at least 85 people, including several officers. More than 300 people have been killed since the protests escalated in mid-July.

Residents said that the disorder had simmered down in recent days, but bouts of violence directed at supporters of Hasina’s ruling party continue. The army and student protest leaders have expressed concern over the safety of the country’s minority Hindus, seen as close to Hasina.

Bangladesh’s newly appointed police chief Mainul Islam on Wednesday urged police officers across the country to resume duty within 24 hours and restore discipline in the force. He also expressed sorrow for excesses by the police and promised a full investigation into every killing during the protests.

Residents said that looting had increased since Hasina’s resignation. Students from various universities in Dhaka, the capital, have taken over directing traffic because no traffic police have reported for duty for two days.

“We are doing it voluntarily so that the people don’t suffer," said Redoan Ahammed Adil, a student at East West University in Dhaka.

Adil said students belonging to his school’s environmental and social club are taking turns directing cars in a nearby neighborhood. Across the city, many students have volunteered for similar roles, he said.

On Tuesday an angry crowd showed up outside of offices of the Mohammadi Group, a Bangladeshi garment-making conglomerate, intent on vandalism. With police nowhere to be found, Rubana Huq, the group’s chairwoman, said dozens of her employees rushed from a nearby factory to confront the rioters.

The Mohammadi employees explained that while the office building was owned by a controversial political figure, Huq and her late husband were politically neutral and shouldn’t be targeted.

“All of them backed off," she said of the rioters. “There’s revenge in the air, but there’s also sanity."

Yunus, a widely respected economist who pioneered microcredit, or extending small loans to impoverished people, will have a monumental task ahead, analysts said. He will have to first restore normalcy and form a caretaker government that will satisfy the protesters, before eventually holding elections for a new government in challenging circumstances.

Under Hasina’s rule, the opposition was hollowed out as many political opponents faced arrests and legal proceedings. Meanwhile, many Bangladeshis hold resentment for members of the Awami League party, the ruling party under Hasina.

Party offices have been burned, including the head office in Dhaka by a mob, as well as a museum dedicated to Mujibur Rahman, Sheikh Hasina’s father and the leader of the country’s struggle for independence from Pakistan in 1971.

Many of the top party officials are trying to flee the country or in hiding.

Yunus’s appointment was decided on Tuesday in talks between the president, military chiefs and more than a dozen student protest leaders. He was the choice put forward by student leaders, who said they opposed a military-led interim government.

Jon Emont and Krishna Pokharel contributed to this article.