BANGLADESH PM FLEES COUNTRY AFTER 15YEARS IN POWER

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Sheikh Hasina, the prime minister of Bangladesh, left the nation on Monday, an AFP source close to the leader said, after over a month of violent anti-government demonstrations.

Despite weeks of calls for her to step down, Hasina—who has been in power since 2009—left after a violent day of upheaval on Sunday that left around 100 people dead.

A source close to Hasina, 76, told AFP that she left the nation by helicopter soon after demonstrators had overrun her Dhaka residence.

“Her security team asked her leave, she did not find any time to prepare”, the source said.

The source adding she left first by motorcade but then was flown out, without saying her destination. “She was later evacuated on a helicopter.”

Before hundreds of people broke past the gates of Hasina’s official residence on Monday morning, jubilant crowds had waved flags, and some had even started dancing on top of a tank in the streets.

Channel 24 in Bangladesh aired footage of revelers rushing into the complex and waving to the camera.

Some others destroyed statues of the nation’s independence hero, Sheikh Mujibur Rahma, who is Hasina’s father.

A military spokesperson informed AFP that Waker-Uz-Zaman, the head of Bangladesh’s army, would address the country on Monday afternoon without providing any other information.

Prior to the demonstrators storming the compound, Hasina’s son pleaded with the nation’s security services to prevent any challenge to her 15-year rule.

“Your duty is to keep our people safe and our country safe and to uphold the constitution,” her son, US-based Sajeeb Wazed Joy, said in a post on Facebook.

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