Published : 20 May 2026, 08:39 AM
Updated : 21 Aug 2026, 03:45 PM
Mahfuj Alam, a key figure in the July Uprising and former student advisor to the subsequent Muhammad Yunus-led interim government, believes the Awami League - whose activities have been banned since the 2024 movement - has “returned” to Bangladesh’s politics.
In two Facebook posts on Tuesday night, he set out what he described as the reasons and circumstances behind the party’s political comeback.
In the first post, Mahfuj wrote: “Before being a political party, the Awami League is a theology; faith in that theology has returned.”
He said he would tell the “story” of how that return happened.
Mahfuj wrote: “The League came back the day people within the interim government began working for the rise of the right wing. The League came back the day the ‘oppressed’ of the past 17 years found joy in mob rule instead of the rule of law.”
Mahfuj, who came to be known as a “mastermind” of the July Uprising after the Awami League government was toppled, posted the status on a day when former prime minister and Awami League President Sheikh Hasina told several Indian news outlets in email interviews that she intended to return to Bangladesh "very soon".
Hasina, who is staying in Delhi after being sentenced to death in Bangladesh for crimes against humanity, spoke at length on a range of issues in those interviews.
Mahfuj also criticised what he described as the celebration of “mobsters” as heroes and the creation of safe spaces for extremists.
He said the Awami League returned when the promise of dismantling the old order was replaced by “minimal reform” and a so-called “Consensus Commission”, which, in his view, alienated and disillusioned the public.
He argued that the student movement also lost its revolutionary potential when students failed to organise themselves into a revolutionary political force and instead became “clubs of lumpen character” and mobs.
Mahfuj was sharply critical of the interim government led by Muhammad Yunus, saying it lost its political character and became bureaucratic.
“The League came back the day the interim government turned from political to bureaucratic, and decisions began to be taken by a bureaucracy-dependent kitchen cabinet,” he wrote.
He alleged that many in that “kitchen cabinet” were covert agents or beneficiaries of Jamaat, the BNP or the Awami League.
“For them, July meant protecting the interests of their families, generations and institutions,” he wrote.
In a sarcastic closing line, Mahfuj said: “The League will return because all blame lies with Mahfuj Alam.”
He said this narrative was being promoted by what he called Bangladesh’s “eternally oppressed right-wing circle”, the hidden network of beneficiaries within the interim “kitchen”, bot forces, syndicates and others.
After his post triggered debate on Facebook, Mahfuj issued another statement, saying those who read his earlier post as an analysis should understand that the task now was to stand against all forms of oppression and with the oppressed.
“Our work now is to stand for the human rights of all citizens of Bangladesh, regardless of party, opinion or religion,” he wrote.
He called for defeating reckless, extremist and subversive politics, continuing demands for justice over attacks on minorities and shrine followers, and making justice for the July killings the central demand.
Mahfuj also said rights violations in the justice process must be opposed and the current government must be compelled to implement institutional reforms.
He urged people to celebrate Bangladesh’s many languages and cultures, while resisting what he called regressive and defeatist cultural battles.
He also called for building democratic institutions and organisations wherever possible, and for creating a common anti-fascist space and language among all forces aligned with the July movement.
