Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed has resigned and left the country after weeks of student-led protests spiralled into deadly, nationwide unrest.
The 76-year-old travelled in a helicopter on Monday to India, sources said, as Many of protesters destroyed her official residence in the capital Dhaka.
This brings an unexpected end to the Journey of Bangladesh's longest-serving PM, who has been in power since 2009 and ruled the country for more than 20 years in total.
Credited with overseeing the South Asian country's economic progress in recent years, Ms Hasina began her political career as a pro-democracy icon.
However, in recent years she has been accused of turning autocratic and clamping down on any opposition to her rule. Politically-motivated arrests, disappearances, extra-judicial killings and other abuses have all risen under her rule.
In January she won an unprecedented fourth term as PM in a January election widely decried by critics as being a sham and boycotted by the main opposition.
