Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed said Mir Kashem Ali told him he returned to the country because his son would otherwise be taken away. Ahmed made the remarks on Wednesday afternoon at a reception and discussion programme for July martyrs’ families and July fighters at the China Friendship Conference Centre in Sher-e-Bangla Nagar, Dhaka. He said Mir Kashem Ali was his friend and that they had served time together in Kashimpur prison.

Ahmed said he listened carefully to people who voiced protests at the event and recalled the contribution of those who coordinated the July movement from the front and behind the scenes. He said the movement might have been organized more effectively if the prime minister had not remained in exile for a long time. According to him, much of the field leadership was jailed, forcibly disappeared or in hiding, yet unified public resistance brought down what he called one of history’s worst autocracies.

Referring to his own detention, Ahmed said he spent 61 days in Aynaghar and that no person could remain there even for 24 hours. He said autocracy had destroyed families as well as individuals. Calling for unity, he warned that if people begin asking who owns July, it will belong to no one. He said the July uprising resulted from long preparation, sacrifice and struggle and must not be partisanized.