Islamabad (Web Desk): Pakistan on Wednesday expressed solidarity with the people of Bangladesh and hoped that they would return to normalcy peacefully and swiftly.
“The government and people of Pakistan stand in solidarity with the people of Bangladesh, sincerely hoping for a peaceful and swift return to normalcy,” Foreign Office (FO) spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said in a statement.
She also expressed confidence that the resilient spirit and unity of the Bangladeshi people would lead them to a harmonious future.
The statement comes as a caretaker government is expected to be formed in Bangladesh under the leadership of Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus after student protest leaders asked him to do so.
The movement that toppled Hasina rose out of demonstrations against public sector job quotas for families of veterans of Bangladesh’s 1971 independence war, seen by critics as a means to reserve jobs for allies of the ruling party.
The unrest began last month in the form of protests against civil service job quotas and then escalated into wider calls for Hasina to stand down.
Hasina, 76, had been in power since 2009 but was accused of rigging elections in January and then watched millions of people take to the streets over the past month demanding she step down.
More than 400 people died as security forces sought to quell the unrest, but the protests grew and Hasina finally fled Bangladesh aboard a helicopter on Monday as the military turned against her.