Dhaka, Bangladesh. Bangladesh President Mohammed Shahabuddin will resign on Friday, his spokesperson said, following pressure linked to his longstanding ties with ousted former prime minister Sheikh Hasina.
The resignation comes days after Hasina said she planned to return from exile in India to surrender after being convicted by a war crimes court.
Resignation process
Shahabuddin’s press secretary, Sarwar Alam, said the president would submit his resignation after parliament speaker Hafiz Uddin Ahmad returns from Thailand on Friday.
Under the Constitution, the resignation becomes effective when a signed letter is submitted to the speaker. The speaker would automatically become interim president until a new president is elected, Alam said.
The president’s spokesperson did not provide a reason for the resignation. However, three sources familiar with the matter said the government had pressed Shahabuddin to step aside because of his links to Hasina.
Political pressure
Shahabuddin, the head of state and commander-in-chief of the armed forces, was a former ally of Hasina. His departure would leave Hasina without allies in high office five months before her planned return.
Hasina’s Awami League party is banned, while many of its leaders and activists have been jailed or gone into hiding since a student-led uprising toppled her government in 2024.
Spokespeople for Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, whose party won a landslide victory in February’s election, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Hasina conviction and planned return
In November, Bangladesh’s war crimes court sentenced Hasina to death in absentia for ordering a crackdown on the uprising. A United Nations report said nearly 1,400 people were killed.
Hasina has denied the charges from exile. Her planned return from India has increased public pressure on Rahman’s government to remove her remaining allies from senior positions.
Her return is expected to test efforts to restore stability in the mainly Muslim country of 173 million people, a major garment-exporting economy, after two years of turmoil.
