Mahmoodur Rahman, editor of Amar Desh, said on Thursday that several revolutionaries joining the government after the July mass uprising was the biggest mistake. Speaking at a discussion at the Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh in Dhaka organized by the National Engineers Alliance of Bangladesh to remember the martyrs of the July uprising, he argued that after a successful revolution revolutionaries should have stayed out of government and established the ‘July vision’ from outside.

He compared the July uprising to successful revolutions like Cuba’s and said some local revolutionaries erred by becoming part of the existing state apparatus. He called the choice of Dr. Muhammad Yunus as interim government head “perfect” for that moment, while noting he did not fully agree with all Yunus’s actions. He urged revolutionaries to form a revolutionary political force, create an ideological basis for state change, and maintain unity under the July revolution’s umbrella.

He said the July uprising’s three distinct features were that it was unarmed, wholly domestic, and had no single leader, and he urged fighters to remain united to keep the martyrs’ memory alive.