Bangladesh Unrest: President Appoints New Chief Justice, Muhammad Yunus Appeals For Communal Unity

Bangladesh's President has appointed Syed Refat Ahmed as Chief Justice after the resignation of six judges including the previous Chief Justice Obaidul Hassan.

Bangladesh President Mohammed Shahabuddin has appointed Syed Refat Ahmed as the new Chief Justice of the South Asian country's Supreme Court. The move came on Saturday night, hours after Chief Justice Obaidul Hassan and five other top judges resigned following renewed protests, five days after the fall of Sheikh Hasina’s government. 

Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed, senior most judge of the High Court Division of the Supreme Court, was first appointed as judge of the Appellate Division and then appointed as chief justice, The Daily Star reported Law Secretary Md Golam Sarwar as saying.

On Saturday, Obaidul Hassan, who was appointed to helm the Supreme Court last year and is seen as a loyalist to ousted premier Hasina, had to resign after he was told to step down by protesters who gathered outside the High Court premises in Dhaka. 

Later, five more judges of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court resigned from their posts, including Justice M Enayetur Rahim, Justice Md Abu Zafor Siddique, Justice Jahangir Hossain Selim, Justice Md Shahinur Islam and Justice Kashefa Hussain.

The fresh protests come days after a student-led uprising against the government's hiring rules led to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's ouster from the country and Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus taking charge of a caretaker government.

Reportedly, around 450 people have been killed in more than a month of deadly protests that ended 76-year-old Hasina's autocratic rule. One of Asia's longest-serving leaders, Hasina resigned and fled Bangladesh on August 5 under pressure from millions of agitators who took to the streets for weeks to demand her resignation.

Muhammad Yunus's Appeal For Unity

Meanwhile, Bangladesh's interim leader Muhammad Yunus appealed for religious unity on Saturday after embracing the weeping mother of a student shot dead by police, according to a report by news agency AFP.

"Our responsibility is to build a new Bangladesh," 84-year-old Yunus told reporters.

Several reprisal attacks against the country's Hindu minority since autocratic ex-premier Hasina's toppling have caused alarm in neighbouring India as well as fear at home. Yunus called for calm during a visit to the northern city of Rangpur by invoking the memory of Abu Sayeed, the first student slain during last month's unrest.

"Don't differentiate by religion", he said.