The Nobel Peace Prize-winning economist Muhammad Yunus has been sworn in as the head of Bangladesh’s interim government, three days after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was forced to resign and flee to neighbouring India.
Yunus, 84, took the oath during a ceremony at the presidential palace in Dhaka on Thursday night that was attended by political leaders, civil society leaders, generals and diplomats.
“I will uphold, support and protect the constitution,” Yunus said as he was administered the oath by President Mohammed Shahabuddin, adding that he will perform his duties “sincerely”.
More than a dozen members of his cabinet, whose titles are advisers, not ministers, also took the oath as the caretaker government will now seek to restore peace and prepare for new elections.
They include Nahid Islam and Asif Mahmud, top leaders of the Students Against Discrimination group, which led the weeks-long protests that ousted Hasina.
Others include Touhid Hossain, a former foreign secretary, and Hassan Ariff, a former attorney general. Syeda Rizwana Hasan, an award-winning environmental lawyer, and Asif Nazrul, a top law professor and writer, were also sworn in.
Adilur Rahman Khan, a prominent human rights activist who was sentenced to two years in jail by Hasina’s government, also took the oath as an adviser.
No representatives of Hasina’s Awami League party were present at the ceremony.
Hasina quit on Monday after nationwide protests that began in July against a quota system for government jobs that critics said favoured people with connections to her party.
But the demonstrations soon grew into a bigger challenge for Hasina’s 15-year rule as more than 300 people, including students, were killed during spiralling violence.
Yunus, who was awarded the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for his work developing microcredit markets, was in the French capital for the 2024 Olympics when he was chosen for the interim role and returned home earlier on Thursday to tight security at the airport in Dhaka.
In his first comments after his arrival, he said at a news briefing that his priority would be to restore order. “Bangladesh is a family. We have to unite it,” Yunus said while flanked by student leaders. “It has immense possibility.”
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered his “best wishes” to Yunus, saying New Delhi was “committed” to working with neighbouring Dhaka.
“My best wishes to Professor Muhammad Yunus on the assumption of his new responsibilities,” Modi wrote on the social media platform X. “India remains committed to working with Bangladesh to fulfil the shared aspirations of both our peoples for peace, security and development.”
The United States also welcomed the new interim government in Bangladesh, saying it hoped to work together to advance democracy.
“We welcome Dr Yunus’s call for an end to the recent violence and we stand ready to work with the interim government and Dr Yunus as it charts a democratic future for the people of Bangladesh,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.
He said that the highest-ranking US diplomat in Bangladesh, Helen LaFave, attended the inauguration ceremony and has been in touch with the interim government.
The US had a largely cooperative relationship with Hasina over her 15 years in power that had grown tense as she bristled over US criticism on her record on democracy.
Al Jazeera’s Tanvir Chowdury, reporting from Dhaka, said Yunus wants the people to feel secure and has asked people not to seek vengeance or reprisal.
“Most people say it would be good if the interim government stays for a long time to clean up the system,” he said.
Chowdury said the people want an independent judiciary and election commission to “depoliticise the system”.
“Because whenever there is a political government, there are a lot of people who are loyal to that government and given a higher position, and that whole system gets corrupted,” he said.
On Wednesday, a tribunal in Dhaka acquitted Yunus in a labour law violation case involving a telecommunications company he founded in which he was convicted and sentenced to six months in jail. He was out on bail in the case.
Yunus has been a longtime opponent of Hasina, who had called him a “bloodsucker” allegedly for using force to extract loan repayments from rural poor people, mainly women. Yunus has denied the allegations.