The decision to appoint Professor Yunus as a key advisor to the interim government came after a meeting between President Mohamed Shihab-Eldin, army commanders and student leaders.

“When students who have sacrificed so much ask me to step in at this difficult time, how can I refuse?” Professor Younes said.

His spokesman said he was returning to Dhaka from Paris where he was undergoing a minor medical procedure.

The protests in Bangladesh began in early July with demands by university students to abolish quotas in civil service jobs, but have morphed into a broader anti-government movement.

Reports indicate that more than 400 people have been killed in clashes between government forces and protesters, most of them civilians shot by police.

On Monday alone, more than 100 people were killed across the country, making it the bloodiest day in the history of the protest movement. Hundreds of police stations were also burned.

Hours before protesters stormed and ransacked the former prime minister’s official residence in the capital, Dhaka, Ms Hasina resigned and fled to neighbouring India, bringing her nearly 15-year rule to a swift and abrupt end.

Despite Bangladesh’s economic growth over the past decade, the former prime minister has come under increasing criticism for silencing her critics and jailing her political opponents.

Some, such as former prime minister Khaleda Zia and activist Ahmed Bin Kassim, were released shortly after Hasina’s hasty exit.

Ms Zia heads the main opposition party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which boycotted elections in 2014 and again in 2024, saying free and fair elections were not possible under Ms Hasina.

The 78-year-old was jailed in 2018 on corruption charges – charges she said were politically motivated.

Human rights groups say Mr. Qassim was arrested in 2016, one of hundreds of enforced disappearances during Ms. Hasina’s rule.