PM pledges justice for July martyrs

Prime Minister Tarique Rahman said Saturday that honoring and rehabilitating the martyrs and wounded in the 2024 July mass uprising is a “sacred responsibility” of the government, and pledged that those responsible for their deaths would be tried under the country’s own laws.

Speaking at the July National Conference, held at the Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre in Dhaka’s Agargaon area to commemorate the Uprising’s fallen, Rahman said the government remained committed to preserving the memory of the martyrs’ sacrifice and the contributions of the wounded.

He said efforts were underway to ensure their families and fellow fighters receive the highest honor and recognition, along with full rehabilitation and support for a secure standard of living.

“The state will try, to the best of its ability, to honor your sacrifice,” Rahman told the gathering. “But alongside that recognition, those responsible for the injustice done to you — for the killing of your loved ones — will certainly be tried under the laws of this country.”

At the same time, the prime minister cautioned against any miscarriage of justice carried out in the name of prosecuting the guilty. He said that if the departed could see injustice committed while trying to punish those who wronged them, they would not find peace.

For that reason, he said, all legal procedures must be strictly observed, even if it takes more time — provided that those responsible for the killings ultimately face proper justice.

Rahman spoke emotionally about the grief of the victims’ families, saying he had repeatedly imagined asking his own mother, had she suffered such injustice, whether she wanted revenge.

He said he believed she would have told him that his task, in that moment, was to unite the nation and move the country forward — and that his brother would have given the same answer.

He acknowledged mothers in the audience who had watched their children burned or shot to death, and siblings who had witnessed their brothers killed, saying he understood and shared their pain.

He added that from the days of autocratic rule through the August 5 culmination of the July movement, thousands upon thousands had suffered physical torture, and that he too carried some of that physical and mental burden.

The prime minister said the achievement of August 5 belonged to no single individual or party, but to every pro-democracy citizen of the country — the fruit of the people’s collective sacrifice. He noted that, according to United Nations figures, 65 children were among the martyrs, “children who had committed no crime” but gave their lives so the country could be freed from autocracy.

Citing the tumultuous days of the uprising, Rahman said the home minister had referenced UN estimates of roughly 1,400 martyrs. Based on his own tracking through party workers during that period, he said, his estimate was that around 2,000 people were killed in the July movement alone, with roughly 30,000 injured or otherwise affected.

Rahman said the BNP had the courage and strength to make sacrifices for the nation’s progress, describing it as the party of martyred President Ziaur Rahman and Begum Khaleda Zia, and one that believes in Bangladesh’s existence and democracy.

He said the nation could not move forward if divided, and told the July families that while their losses could never be undone, the country’s collective progress would one day let them take pride in what their sacrifice achieved. The only task now, he said, was to fulfill the martyrs’ dream.

He closed by saying the nation’s central goal must remain the country and its people, and that no force should be allowed to divert that goal — urging that the day’s gathering become a shared oath and pledge to that end.

The conference, organised jointly by the July 24 Martyrs’ Family Society and the July Fighters’ Central Executive Committee, brought together around a hundred families of the wounded and fallen, many of whom shared their grief with the prime minister.

The event opened with Quranic recitation, prayers for the martyrs, the national anthem, and a documentary on the July movement, before Rahman presented commemorative mementos to family representatives, including relatives of martyrs Miraj and Selim.