NEW DELHI, August 6. /TASS/. Student protests that have been raging in Bangladesh since early last month have prompted the South Asian country’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to resign as the president dissolved parliament with plans to form a caretaker government.

TASS has gathered the key facts about the situation.

Root causes of protests

Protesters took to the streets across Bangladeshi cities in early July, demanding the abolition of job quotas for the relatives of participants in the 1971 war of independence. Students insisted this system was discriminatory. Almost 32 million youths in the country of over 170 million are unemployed or have no professional education.

The situation in the republic gradually escalated, with protests turning into violence. At least 10,000 people have been arrested since the riots erupted, The Daily Star reported.

AFP said earlier, citing data from police and health officials, that over 350 people have been killed in protests since July. Meanwhile, India Today television said, citing unofficial sources, that between 1,000 and 1,400 people may have been killed.

PM resigns amid violence

On Monday, thousands flooded the streets of Dhaka and other large cities in Bangladesh. Protesters raided the residence of Premier Sheikh Hasina after she resigned and fled the country, smashed a statue of the country’s founder, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, set fire to a museum dedicated to him, broke into the parliament building and the office of the ruling Awami League party, attacked the homes of members of this political group, police stations, a prison and the offices of major television channels.

More than 100 people have died in clashes and fires over the past day.

On Tuesday, the leaders of the Anti-discrimination Students' Movement who organized mass protests in Bangladesh called for a stop to the violence.

Bangladesh moves to form government

The army took control of the republic after the premier’s resignation. Bangladeshi Chief of Army Staff General Waker-Uz-Zaman has announced the formation of a caretaker government involving all political parties.

The leaders of student protests said they will not accept any government except one formed by the students’ movement with Muhammad Yunus as an adviser.

Yunus, 84, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has already agreed to act as the chief adviser of the proposed interim government. The economist, who is currently in Paris, is expected to return to Bangladesh as soon as possible.

Yunus won international recognition for providing small loans to the poor in rural Bangladeshi areas via the Grameen Bank he founded in 1983. He butted heads with Hasina, however, who accused him of cheating farmers.

Parliament dissolved

The leaders of the Anti-discrimination Students' Movement demanded that parliament be dissolved no later than 3:00 p.m. local time (8:00 a.m. GMT) on Tuesday.

Bangladeshi President Mohammed Shahabuddin made a corresponding decision after consulting with the chiefs of the three branches of the armed forces and the leaders of political parties and the Anti-discrimination Students' Movement, the presidential office said.

Opposition activists released

Also, the Bangladeshi leader made a decision to release representatives of the Anti-discrimination Students' Movement arrested between July 1 and August 5.

Over a thousand opposition activists have been reportedly freed from jails. Among other people, Begum Khaleda Zia, who served as the prime minister of Bangladesh twice before being convicted for bribery, has been released from house arrest. Her supporters insist the probe was politically motivated.

Situation in capital Dhaka

Civil servants employed with ministries have fled Sachibalaya, where the country’s ministries and government agencies are headquartered, the New Age outlet reported. People in the capital began to panic as rumors of looming violence and office arsons spread prompting officials to flee their offices.

Following Hasina’s resignation, the Bangladesh Police Service Association said it was going on strike indefinitely until the security of every member of the police can be guaranteed.