‘Student protests evolved to topple Hasina’

BSS :

Nazmul Hasan, a central coordinator of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement, said that the student protests quickly evolved into a broader campaign aimed at toppling autocratic ruler Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

In an exclusive interview with the Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS), Nazmul described how years of repression, attacks, and violence under the Awami League government led him and fellow activists to envision a movement that extended far beyond the quota reform issue.

“A firm desire of her downfall had been taking shape since our early days on campus. By the time the July movement began, we were already drawing up the blueprint to bring down Sheikh Hasina,” he said.

A student of Mathematics at Dhaka College and the current General Secretary of the Bangladesh Student Rights Council, Nazmul was a prominent figure in the 2018 quota reform movement and has played a key role in several major student protests since then. His political activism has come at a high cost—facing arrests, lawsuits, and brutal attacks, including a 183-day imprisonment in 2021 for opposing political interference of a neighboring country.

In this detailed interview, Nazmul shared his political journey, the inner workings of the July uprising, and how the movement evolved into a mass call for systemic change in Bangladesh. The following is the full interview…

BSS: How did you get involved in the movement?
Nazmul Hasan: I was part of the 2018 quota reform movement led by the Bangladesh General Students’ Rights Protection Council. In October 2018, the quota in government job recruitment was abolished, but suddenly, on June 5, 2024, it was reinstated. As soon as we heard this, we organized a procession under the banner of the Bangladesh Student Rights Council, marching from Doel Chattar to TSC with Dhaka University students.

On June 9, I led the first protest by students of the seven affiliated colleges at Nilkhet. We started there, moved through Dhaka College and Science Lab, and returned to Nilkhet. The protests continued to gain momentum from that point on.

BSS: July 4 was the deadline of your ultimatum. What happened that day?
Nazmul Hasan: Under my leadership, we brought out a blockade at Science Lab with students from Dhaka College and Eden College starting at 10 am. The idea was to shift the momentum away from Shahbagh and create a parallel pressure point at Science Lab, a major Dhaka intersection.