Staff Reporter :
Housing and Public Works Adviser Adilur Rahman Khan has called on academics and researchers to undertake rigorous documentation and scholarly research on the July Uprising, emphasising its historical significance and the need for its integration into the national curriculum.
Speaking at the inauguration of the first International Conference on the July Revolution (ICJR-1, 2025) at the Nawab Nawab Ali Chowdhury Senate Building, University of Dhaka, Adilur stressed the national duty to preserve the truth of the uprising through research, photographs, videos, and archival evidence.
“We must retrieve and safeguard the documentation of the July Uprising-photos, videos, testimonies-and carry out in-depth studies. This is a national responsibility,” he said.
The day-long conference brought together scholars from Bangladesh, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States, who presented research papers and posters exploring the political, social, and historical dimensions of the 2024 July Revolution.
Adviser Adilur strongly criticised the former Hasina administration, accusing it of weaponising state institutions to suppress dissent.
“Enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings became routine. Poets, teachers, journalists, and student leaders were criminalised and imprisoned,” he said. He also denounced the repressive Digital Security Act, which, he argued, stifled freedom of expression and curtailed civil liberties.
Highlighting the need for institutional reform, Adilur noted that the fall of a repressive regime does not by itself guarantee justice. “We must restructure the judiciary and the security forces and ensure that student movements are protected from renewed forms of oppression,” he stated.
