Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus made an emotional return home to Bangladesh on Thursday to lead a new interim government after weeks of student protests forced Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to resign and flee to neighbouring India.

A harsh critic of Hasina, Yunus, 84, arrived in Dhaka following medical treatment in Paris after protesters backed him for the role in a caretaker government tasked with holding elections for a new leader.

"The country has the possibility of becoming a very beautiful nation," Yunus told reporters at the airport, where he was greeted by senior military officers and student leaders.

The student protesters had saved the country, he said, adding: "Whatever path our students show us, we will move ahead with that."

Yunus became emotional, choked and seemed to hold his tears back as he referred to a student he said had been shot during the protests and that sacrifice could not be forgotten.

"Now again we have to rise up. To the government officials here and defence chiefs - we are a family, we should move ahead together," he said.

The economist, known as the "banker to the poor", received the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for founding a bank that pioneered the fight against poverty through small loans to needy borrowers.

Yunus is set to be sworn in as chief of a team of advisers at 1430 GMT at the official residence of President Mohammed Shahabuddin.

Nahid Islam and Asif Mahmud, two student leaders who are both in their mid-20s and led the protests, will join the caretaker government, local media reported.

Hasina's Awami League party does not figure in the interim government after she resigned on Monday following weeks of violence that killed about 300 people and injured thousands.

In a Facebook post, her son Sajeeb Wazed Joy said the party had not given up, however, and was ready to hold talks with opponents and the interim government.

"I had said my family will no longer be involved in politics but the way our party leaders and workers are being attacked, we cannot give up," he said on Wednesday.