Dhaka - Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled her palace on Monday as thousands of Bangladeshi protesters stormed her palace.
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, peacefully 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.
"You must keep our people safe and our country safe and 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 armored 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."
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