'Second liberation day for Bangladesh, time to build nation'

CALLING the resignation of PM Sheikh Hasina the second liberation for Bangladesh, Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr Muhammad Yunus hailed the students of his country as the best in the world.

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"They have released the country from the hands of a dictator. We are free now. It's time to celebrate," Yunus told Bala Chauhan from Paris, where he is accompanying Bangladesh's Olympic contingent. Excerpts: How do you look at the violence and arson, which started against the government quota policy and ended with ouster of Sheikh Hasina? Everybody young and old-is celebrating in the country, out on the streets, after a long time.

This is a liberation celebration.

Finally, we emerged from everything terrible happening to us.

Hasina has fled the country and we are free to build a new country. I congratulate the students for achieving what no political party or world leader could do.

Hasina is out and we are a free country now. This was in the offing, though I had no idea that it (protest) would become so big. What started as a students' protest against the reservation policy got momentum from parents, civil society.

But the cost was so high... so many lives were lost.

She was killing young people.