Farhad Mazhar Claims July-August Was Not an Uprising

Prominent writer and poet Farhad Mazhar has rejected the description of the student movement of July-August 2024 as an ‘uprising’. In a recently viral interview on social media, he claimed that although the events of that period could be viewed as a movement, there was a different form of international involvement behind them.

Speaking in a podcast hosted by online-based new media platform Alap, Farhad Mazhar said he had been in regular contact with the coordinators during the movement. According to him, he spoke by phone with Nahid Islam, one of the movement’s leading coordinators, on the night of 2 August 2024.

Mazhar claimed that during the conversation, Nahid Islam told him that they were being forced to ‘compromise’ and were under pressure to announce Sheikh Hasina’s resignation. In this context, Mazhar said that although Sheikh Hasina would resign, there had been a plan to keep the existing state structure intact.

During the interview, he further claimed that Nahid Islam and several other coordinators were staying at a ‘safe house’ operated by the US embassy at the time. According to him, the United States wanted to ensure Sheikh Hasina’s resignation by providing security to the protesters and ultimately succeeded in doing so.

Farhad Mazhar also claimed that when Nahid Islam was admitted to Gonoshasthaya Hospital during the movement, a vehicle was kept outside the hospital around the clock. According to Mazhar, the vehicle was part of a safe house arrangement managed by the United States.

At one point in the podcast, the presenter asked whether the movement had therefore been organised and funded by the United States. In response, Farhad Mazhar said, “What is there to say? They had announced their involvement from the very beginning.”

He also referred to a speech he had delivered at a discussion organised by the Gono Odhikar Parishad in 2023. According to Mazhar, he had said at the time: “We do not need to organise a movement. The United States itself will remove the Sheikh Hasina government. We do not need to worry about that.”