Rafe Salman Rifat, a leader of the Youth for People’s Power (UP Bangladesh), stated on Facebook that the July uprising had no single figurehead. “Sadiq Kayem, Nahid, Mahfuz, and Zunaed — none led the others; there was no singular ‘imam’ of this movement. The sacrifice of the martyrs and the injured turned the student and public protests into a full-scale uprising,” he wrote. Rifat added, “This was also a direct consequence of the brutal repression by Hasina’s regime and the spontaneous unity of the people against it.” He warned that post-August 5 efforts to impose a singular leadership narrative only sowed division and mistrust. Rifat further noted that Dr. Muhammad Yunus has viewed the movement through the lens of a few select individuals, while remaining unaware of the broader collective leadership including Sadiq Kayem, Hasnat Abdullah, Ali Ahsan Zunaed, Sibghatullah, and student leaders like Rakib and Nasir. Had this collective leadership been acknowledged earlier, the current coordination crisis among movement leaders might have been avoided.