NEW DELHI, August 6. /TASS/. Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus was appointed to lead the interim cabinet of Bangladesh, the Dhaka Tribune newspaper reported.

Joynal Abedin, spokesman for Bangladeshi President Shahabuddin Chuppu, said the decision was made following the president’s meeting with leaders of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement on Tuesday.

Abedin said the remaining members of the interim cabinet would be selected after consultations with various political parties.

Bangladesh's president dissolved parliament on Tuesday to form an interim cabinet following the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Yunus earlier said he was ready to lead the interim cabinet, as demanded by protesters that were rallying against Hasina. He said he was touched by their trust, although he had always kept a distance between himself and politics, and called for free elections in the country.

Yunus, 84, is now in Paris as a special guest of the International Olympic Committee. He is also undergoing medical treatment abroad. Yunus is expected to return to Bangladesh as soon as possible.

About Yunus

Yunus, who won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for his work to advance economic development, gained international recognition when he began providing small loans to the poor in rural Bangladesh through Grameen Bank, which he founded in 1983.

Yunus soon came into conflict with Hasina, who accused him of defrauding the peasants by making them pay interest rates of about 20% per annum on the loans they received.

A Dhaka court later indicted Yunus and 13 other employees of Grameen Telecom, the telecom company he founded, of embezzling funds from the company’s welfare fund for workers.