Muhammad Yunus is is the founder of pioneering microlender Grameen Bank and one of Bangladesh’s most prominent figures. Photograph: Mahmud Hossain Opu/APNobel laureate Muhammad Yunus will head an interim government in Bangladesh after prime minister Sheikh Hasina stepped down and fled the country amid a mass uprising against her rule led mostly by students. “We have decided that an interim government will be formed in which internationally renowned Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, who has wide acceptability, will be the chief adviser,” Nahid Islam, an organiser of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement, said in a video statement early on Tuesday. [ Who is Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, Bangladesh protesters’ chosen chief adviser?Opens in new window ]“We have spoken to Dr Muhammad Yunus and, at the call of the students and to protect Bangladesh, Dr Muhammad Yunus has decided to take on the responsibility.”An official from Dr Yunus’s office confirmed that he had accepted the students’ request. Ms Hasina, who claimed a fifth term in power this year after a disputed election, had ruled with an increasingly authoritarian hand.
