For the first time, Bangladesh's Chief of Army Staff-General Waker-Uz-Zaman hinted that the interim government headed by Chief Advisor Muhammad Yunus could continue in the country's helm of affairs for at least 18 months.
"If you ask me, then I will say that should be the time frame by which we should enter into a democratic process," Bangladesh's leading newspaper The Daily Star quoted the four-star General as saying in an interview with international news agency Reuters.
According to the newspaper report, it is for the first time that a key player in the current government has stated a concrete timeframe, although the army chief did not elaborate further what he meant by "democratic process".
Last week, the government had granted magisterial powers to commissioned army officers with immediate effect for 60 days to improve law and order in the country.
General Waker-Uz-Zaman, however, also said that the army would continue to firmly support the reforms started by the government led by Yunus.
"I will stand beside him. Come what may. So that he can accomplish his mission," Zaman, who replaced General S M Shafiuddin Ahmed as the country's army chief in June, said in the interview.
He previously served as the Principal Staff Officer of the former Prime Minister Hon'ble Sheikh Hasina at the Armed Forces Division under the Bangladesh Prime Minister's Office before joining as Chief of General Staff of Bangladesh Army in January 2024.
"The army's refusal to apply force and subdue the people's uprising hastened the fall of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's Awami League regime. While the police and ruling party cadres are blamed for shooting dead hundreds of protesters during the anti-quota and anti-government protests, the military mostly stood aside, and thus remains one of the few institutions that has survived the violent transition almost unsullied," reported Daily Star on Tuesday.
Being the daughter of Bangladesh's founder Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Hasina was once the loudest force behind the reinstatement of secular democracy in the country. She had to leave the country in disrepute and take shelter in India on August 5.
Days after the coup, an interim government was formed in Bangladesh, with Yunus as the Chief Advisor of that administration.
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