Nobel laureate Yunus named chief adviser of Bangladesh interim govt

DHAKA (Reuters): Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus was named chief adviser of Bangladesh’s interim government on Tuesday, a day after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled the country following a violent crackdown on a student-led uprising.

Yunus was appointed to the post by Bangladesh President Mohammed Shahabuddin after he held meetings with student leaders and chiefs of the three military services, local media reported late on Tuesday, citing a statement and officials from the president’s office.

Yunus, 84, and his Grameen Bank, a microcredit organization, won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for work to lift millions out of poverty by granting small loans of under $100 to the rural poor of Bangladesh.

The student leaders had said they wanted Yunus as the chief adviser to the interim government and a spokesperson for Yunus said he agreed. Yunus is in Paris for a medical procedure and is expected to return to Dhaka soon.

There was no immediate comment from him in response to the appointment. It was also not immediately known when the interim government would take charge.

Earlier on Tuesday, Shahabuddin dissolved parliament, clearing the way for the interim government and new elections.

His office also announced that the leader of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, Begum Khaleda Zia, a former prime minister who had feuded with Hasina for decades, had been freed from house arrest.