Had a ‘fruitful meeting’ at Bangabhaban: Nahid

Nahid Islam, a key organiser of the Anti-Discriminatory Student Movement, said that they had “a fruitful meeting” with President Mohammed Shahabuddin.

He said they also handed over a primary list of 10 to 15 people — representatives of citizens and students — who would be the members of the interim government.

“The list will be finalised after talking with political parties… It may take 24 hours’ to finalise that,” he said while talking with reporters outside the Bangabhaban after the meeting yesterday.

Nahid and 12 others organisers of the student movement and two teachers of Dhaka University Prof Asif Nazrul and Prof Mohammad Tanzimuddin Khan as part of the four-hour meeting which started around 7:15pm. The heads of the three armed forces were also present at the meeting.

He said they got assurance that the interim government proposed by the students would be finalised.

He said the president agreed to their proposal that Prof Yunus would be nominated as the chief adviser of the interim government.

“The interim government will be formed as soon as possible, he said based on the assuarance he recieved in the meeting.

Asked about when Yunus, who is in France for the Olympics, will return to the country, Nahid said the Nobel laurate went through a minor operation yesterday.

“He [Yunus] will start for Bangladesh tomorrow (Wednesday) and may reach the country by night or next morning,” he added.

“People and students were behind the uprising and it is their responsibilities to save it. We are seeing that anarchy is being spread in a concerted and planned way. Attacks are being contacted to malign the uprising,” Nahid said.

He urged all to remain peaceful and take steps to save government structures and minorities.

Prof Asif Nazrul said the list of the members of the interim government will not be disclosed now as it is a primary one. Discussions on the duration of the interim government and other issued are going on, he added.

“We are going to form the government in an extraordinary situation. There are different constitutional means and customs to legalise certain actions. We will follow do that.”

Chiefs of three services praised the students for their effort in maintaining traffic and guarding the places of worship of minorities, he added.