Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, political affairs adviser to the prime minister and a BNP standing committee member, said no one in the world matched Sheikh Hasina among fascists. He made the remarks on Sunday at the National University Senate Hall in Gazipur during an event titled “The Spirit of July and Bangladesh’s Future.” The university organized the programme to mark the second anniversary of the 2024 July mass uprising.

Rizvi said students led the July movement, with contributions from pupils from primary school through university, while the public supported them. He said workers, rickshaw pullers, hotel cooks and journalists were also killed alongside students. He described people from different social and professional groups joining a student-led movement against what he called severe misrule.

He said Bangladeshis had repeatedly protested and resisted misrule and did not have a history of tolerating it. Rizvi also discussed Khaleda Zia’s leadership, imprisonment and alleged mistreatment. National University Vice-Chancellor Professor Dr A S M Amanullah chaired the event. Pro-Vice-Chancellor Professor Md Lutfor Rahman delivered the welcome address, while Pro-Vice-Chancellor Professor Dr Mohammad Ali Jinnah and Treasurer Professor Dr Md Nazmul Hossain also spoke.