By Krishna N. Das
NEW DELHI, July 23 (Reuters) - Bangladesh President Mohammed Shahabuddin, a former ally of ousted premier Sheikh Hasina, will resign on Friday, three sources told Reuters on Thursday, days after Hasina said she was returning home from exile to surrender.
Last November Bangladesh’s war crimes court sentenced Hasina to death in absentia for ordering a crackdown on a student-led uprising in 2024 in which nearly 1,400 people were killed. From exile, she has denied the charges against her.
News of Hasina’s planned return from India has piled public pressure on Prime Minister Tarique Rahman’s new government to purge the last of her allies from high office.
As head of state, Shahabuddin is commander-in-chief of the armed forces, but the role is largely ceremonial, and executive power rests with the prime minister and cabinet of the mainly Muslim country of 173 million people.
Shahabuddin’s position gained prominence when the 2024 uprising forced long-time Prime Minister Hasina to flee to New Delhi in August that year. Shahabuddin, 76, had been elected unopposed for a five-year term in 2023 as a nominee of Hasina’s Awami League party, which is now banned.
He has now decided to resign and has informed Prime Minister Rahman, two of the sources said. One said Shahabuddin informed Rahman on Tuesday and a formal announcement would be made on Friday. All three sources declined to be identified given the sensitivity of the matter.
Shahabuddin did not respond to repeated calls and messages for comment. He told Reuters in December he was planning to resign after the February election that brought Rahman to power.
Rahman’s spokespeople did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Parliament speaker Hafiz Uddin Ahmad could serve as interim president before a permanent candidate is elected, said the sources.
Hasina told Reuters in an interview this month that she and her senior party colleagues planned to return from exile around December and surrender.
(Reporting by Krishna N. Das in New DelhiEditing by Gareth Jones)
