The president of Bangladesh on Tuesday appointed Muhammad Yunus, a pioneer in microfinance and a Nobel laureate, to oversee an interim government, accommodating demands by protesters and offering a reprieve for a country scarred by violence.

The plans for a new government were announced a day after Bangladesh’s authoritarian leader, Sheikh Hasina, resigned and fled the country amid a popular uprising.

Bangladesh’s prime minister resigned and fled the country on Monday, as thousands of protesters stormed and ransacked her official residence after weeks of deadly demonstrations against her government.

Bangladesh’s Supreme Court on Sunday rolled back most of the controversial quotas on government jobs which sparked violent protests.

Under the quota system, some 30% of sought-after civil service jobs are reserved for relatives of veterans who fought in Bangladesh’s war of independence from Pakistan in 1971 - with many of the country’s contemporary political elite related to that generation.

Bangladesh suffered its worst blackout since 2014 on Tuesday (Oct. 4), a symptom of disrupted fuel supplies and a preview of what other countries might face in the coming months.

Around 80% of the country faced power outage starting at 2 pm local time, Bangladesh Power Development Board official Shameem Hasan told Reuters. Traffic came to a standstill, shopkeepers tried to work with flashlights, and people flocked to fuel stations to get diesel to run generators.

Bangladesh authorities on Saturday arrested a 15-year-old for “defaming” Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed in a Facebook post. It was an especially egregious move in a wave of arbitrary arrests targeting critics of the ruling party with the harsh and vaguely worded Digital Security Act (DSA).

Muslims in India and Bangladesh celebrated a subdued Eid al-Fitr on Monday, marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan under the shadow of the coronavirus pandemic.

The three-day holiday that begins with the sighting of the moon is usually a time for travel, family gatherings and feasts after weeks of dawn-to-dusk fasting.

Authorities in eastern India and Bangladesh have been struggling to restore road links, communication lines and electricity after a devastating cyclone in which at least 95 people were killed.

"I assure my brothers and sisters of West Bengal that the entire country stands with you in these difficult times," Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday after conducting an aerial survey of the devastation in the state.