Bangladesh Students Seek Nobel Laureate, Yunus, as New Leader

 Following the military takeover of Bangladesh after the resignation and escape of 76 year old Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, student leaders in the country have demanded that Nobel winner, Muhammad Yunus, leads a caretaker government. The students wielding placards with the words "In Dr Yunus We Trust", also want the dissolution of parliament, a call echoed by the key opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, who have demanded elections within three months. Yunus has not commented on the call, but in an interview with India’s The Print, he said Bangladesh had been “an occupied country” under Hasina. It has been announced that Yunus will be chief adviser of the interim government.

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84 year old Muhammad Yunus is a Bangladeshi social entrepreneur, banker, economist and civil society leader who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for founding the Grameen Bank and pioneering the concepts of microcredit and microfinance. Yunus who has received several other national and international honours, is closely affiliated with the United States government, first receiving a Fulbright Scholarship from the US State Department, receiving the United States Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2010. In 2020, he also signed a letter from the National Endowment for Democracy.