Bangladesh’s interim govt announces ‘proclamation of July uprising’ soon

Bangladesh's interim government has announced plans to prepare the ‘Proclamation of the July Uprising’, a day after it distanced itself from a proposed declaration with an identical title that was put forward by a student movement instrumental in toppling Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

"We hope within a few days the proclamation will be prepared with the participation and consensus of all and presented before the nation,” Shafiqul Alam, press secretary to chief adviser Muhammad Yunus, had said in a midnight press conference on Monday, 30 December 2024.

Addressing reporters in front of Yunus’ official Jamuna residence, Alam said the declaration would be based on the views of all participating students, political parties, and stakeholders, including the Anti-Discrimination Students Movement that led to the ouster of Hasina’s Awami League regime on 5 August.

Alam said the government took the initiative to prepare the proposed charter to “consolidate the people's unity, anti-fascist spirit and a desire for state reform developed through the July uprising".

The Anti-Discrimination Students Movement, along with the National Citizens Committee, another group led by the students, earlier said it would announce the proclamation of the July uprising on Tuesday, 31 December.

However, after the government's announcement, the students’ platform hurriedly called an emergency meeting and told the media that they would stage a “march for unity” at the same venue and time.

On Tuesday, they staged a massive "march for unity" rally in Dhaka, which was attended by thousands, mostly students, who travelled to Dhaka from different parts of the country to join the rally. They carried banners and chanted slogans like “bury the Mujibist ideology” and “Delhi or Dhaka, Dhaka, Dhaka” alongside some Islamic slogans.

The rally demanded a declaration of the Proclamation of July uprising by the interim government by 15 January 2025 and the rewriting of the 1972 Constitution by the next elected government.

The students’ platform simultaneously asked the interim government to ensure trial and exemplary punishment of Hasina, now in India, and her accomplices.

“We want to say [that] by 15 January (2025), the proclamation of our July uprising must be issued,” Anti-Discrimination Students Movement convenor Hasnat Abdullah said.

National Citizens Committee chief organiser and movement leader Sarjis Alam said murderers and terrorists were roaming around and “we want to call on the interim government to ensure justice for the genocide".

He simultaneously demanded the annihilation of 'syndicates' which used to control businesses and state machinery. “We want the return of the smuggled money, we want the prices of goods within reach and we also want proper treatment for the injured (of the violence during the uprising)."

Anti-Discrimination Student Movement coordinator Mahin Sarkar questioned the performance of home affairs adviser Lt Gen. (retd) Mohammad Jahangir in bringing to justice the murderers of the protesters and innocent children during the uprising.

"The fugitive murderer Hasina in India must be brought home and justice must be ensured. The students will not leave the streets until they build a new Bangladesh together," another leader of the Movement said.

The rally was preceded by a convention of Islami Chhatra Shibir, known as rightwing Jamaat-e-Islami’s student affiliate, at nearby Suhrawardy Udyan, where Anti-Discrimination Students Movement leader and chief organiser of National Citizens Committee Sarjis Alam also spoke.

Alam said that during the July–August uprising, Shibir played the role of a war comrade with their presence on the street, providing advice and siding with students movement in their important steps.

The 1972 Constitution was framed a year after the emergence of independent Bangladesh by representatives elected in the 1970 elections in line with their “mandate” as “constitute assembly” members with Awami League under Sheikh Mujibur Rahman gaining an absolute majority.

The party won 160 of the 162 general seats and all seven women's seats in then-East Pakistan.

However, Pakistan’s then-military junta under General Yahya Khan eventually launched a sudden army crackdown leading to the Liberation War.

The Awami League has not been seen in the public sphere since the 5 August ouster of the regime, as many of its leaders have been arrested or are on the run at home and abroad, limiting their activities on social media platforms occasionally.

However, some leaders of ex-premier Khaleda Zia’s BNP sharply reacted to the proposal, with its highest policy-making standing committee member Mirza Abbas saying that the Constitution was written in 1972 at the cost of the blood of 3 million people.

“As your seniors, we feel disappointed when you (student movement leaders) say the Constitution should be buried. If there is anything bad in the Constitution, it can be amended,” he told reporters.

Abbas said, “When you (student leaders) say things like this, it sounds fascist” as fascists used to say, "We will bury them, kill them, and cut them off".

The students’ platform and different political groups, including BNP, often dub the ousted regime as “fascist”.

In an exclusive interview with Bangla daily the Jugantor, BNP’s secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said, “We observe some people are speaking in a different tone taunting 1971 (Liberation War).”

“We cannot think of the existence of our country discarding 1971,” Alamgir said, explaining a recent remark at a public rally.