Sheikh Hasina seeks asylum in UK

Bangladesh's former prime minister Sheikh Hasina has requested asylum from the UK.

The Hindu newspaper reported that Hasina had requested asylum from the UK.

Earlier, she resigned and left the country amid widening unrest. However, sources said that Hasina will not be staying in India for long. She is likely to head to London following a stopover in India, reports Times Now, quoting sources.

Media reports said her sister Rehana is accompanying her who already has UK citizenship.

Earlier, Sheikh Hasina departed from Bangabhaban at around 2:30pm on Monday on a military helicopter, accompanied by her younger sister Sheikh Rehana for a "safer place'. She then landed in West Bengal.

The move ends her 15 years in power, and follows weeks of violent protests and clashes with security forces.

Protesters on Monday stormed Sheikh Hasina's official residence Ganabhaban after demonstrators defied a military curfew to march in the capital, Dhaka.

Army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman said in a televised address that Sheikh Hasina, 76, had left the country and that an interim government would be formed.

It was also reported said had flown in a military helicopter with her sister to the eastern Indian state of West Bengal just across the border.

Crowds were seen in the drawing rooms of the residence, and some people could be seen carrying away televisions, chairs and tables.

"She has fled the country, fled the country," some shouted.

Protesters in Dhaka also climbed onto a large statue of her father Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and began chiselling away at the head with an axe.

Student activists had called for a march to Dhaka on Monday in defiance of a nationwide curfew to press Hasina to resign.

The protests began peacefully in late June, as students sought an end to a quota system for government jobs, but turned violent after clashes between protesters and police and pro-government activists at Dhaka University.