BNP Senior Joint Secretary General and the prime minister’s political adviser Advocate Ruhul Kabir Rizvi said the July uprising was no less significant than the French Revolution. Speaking as chief guest at a discussion titled “Bloody July: Remembrance, Commitment” at Kazi Nazrul Islam Auditorium of Rajshahi University on August 2, he said young people had shed blood for democracy, civil liberties and freedom of expression.

Rizvi said every revolution involves bloodshed, but the scale of bloodshed during one month of the July uprising was rare compared with many revolutions worldwide. He alleged that young people’s bodies were seen across villages and cities, while school, college and university students faced state repression. He described efforts by friends to rescue those shot and bring water to the injured as a distinctive humanitarian aspect of the movement.

Criticising the government led by Sheikh Hasina, Rizvi alleged that law enforcement agencies fired indiscriminately but could not halt the movement. Referring to his arrest on July 19, he said he believed the government’s fall was inevitable. He called the uprising the culmination of a 17-year democratic struggle led by Begum Khaleda Zia and urged that democracy gained through bloodshed not be questioned again.