The July uprising erased social divisions, says Advisor Nahid Islam

His remarks came at a funeral for Arafat Hussein, a 12-year-old killed during the Anti-discrimination Student Movement

Nahid Islam, information advisor to the interim government, says that social divisions in Bangladesh have been eliminated through the mass uprising.

"Sheikh Hasina's government created divisions in society. We eliminated them through the 2024 uprising. Now, we all stand united, shoulder to shoulder," he said at the funeral for 12-year-old Arafat Hussein, who was shot during the Anti-discrimination Student Movement, on Monday afternoon at the Central Shaheed Minar.

Nahid said that he felt he lacked the courage to stand before the parents of those martyred in the movement.

Arafat was a child, but he took to the streets to free the country from tyranny, the advisor said.

“We were not fortunate enough to be martyred, but we have the responsibility to rebuild Bangladesh according to the wishes of the families of the martyrs and the injured."

Madrasa students played a key part in the movement, Nahid said.

He said the Awami League government had anger towards madrasa students and so became victims of deprivation and neglect. He recalled their ‘oppression’ at the hands of the police in 2013.

“Yet they took to the streets and fought, we salute them.”

He also said that the families of the martyrs and the injured would be given official recognition and rehabilitated.

The priority of the interim government is to try the killers for their ‘genocide’, he said.

However, Nahid bemoaned that various other issues had come to the fore and pushed those trials from the top of mind of many.

“We respect all the demands, but we have to understand the work we came to the government to do. We have to help. Justice will be ensured in society through the trials of all the genocides and disappearances.”

Sarjis Alam, the chief convener of the National Citizens' Committee, said: “We should not forget the murderer Hasina. Those involved in these murders must face justice. We should be able to tell the martyrs' families that those who committed the murders have been tried on the soil of Bangladesh.”

The funeral was also attended by Press Secretary to the Chief Advisor Shafiqul Alam, Amar Desh newspaper Editor Mahmudur Rahman and others.