Bangladesh opens July Uprising museum as Hasina anniversary draws tight security

Dhaka,UPDATED: Aug 5, 2026 15:32 IST

Bangladesh on Wednesday inaugurated a memorial museum for the victims of the 2024 anti-government protests that led to the fall of Sheikh Hasina’s government, as the country observed the anniversary under tightened security. Prime Minister Tarique Rahman inaugurated the ‘July Mass Uprising Memorial Museum’ at Ganabhaban, the prime minister’s official residence during Hasina’s rule, on the day she fled to India on August 5, 2024.

The anniversary was marked by government and political programmes honouring those killed in the protests, while authorities stepped up security nationwide amid fears of unrest linked to a virtual public address by Hasina from New Delhi. Officials said there were no reports of violence till Wednesday afternoon.

Unveiling the museum’s plaque, Rahman said, “The killers in the anti-fascist movement will be tried in a transparent, impartial and credible manner following the due process of law.” Standing beside Interim government chief Muhammad Yunus, he added, “Justice for every crime is essential to ensure rule of law.” Rahman also announced that government institutions would be named after activists killed in the uprising and those killed during Hasina’s Awami League rule since 2009.

According to a February 2025 report by the UN rights office, up to 1,400 people were killed between July 15 and August 15 last year, a period referred to as the ‘July Uprising’, after Hasina’s government ordered a security crackdown on protesters. The protests were triggered by a controversial quota system in jobs. Hasina fled to India on August 5, 2024, and Yunus took over as chief adviser of the Interim government three days later.

A special tribunal set up by Yunus’s government sentenced Hasina to death in November 2025 on charges of ‘crimes against humanity’ and ‘genocide’. The interim regime also banned Hasina’s Awami League through an executive order, a decision later endorsed by Rahman’s Bangladesh ist Party government after the February 12 elections. On November 17, 2025, the Crime Tribunal, Bangladesh sentenced Hasina and her former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal to death after an in absentia trial, citing their superior responsibility for crimes committed in an attempt to suppress the protesters.

Bangladesh is observing August 5 as ‘July Mass Uprising Day’, with the government, political parties and socio-cultural organisations holding programmes to honour those, including students, who joined the protests against what they called Hasina’s ‘misrule and autocracy’, according to the state-run Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha.

In a related development, the authorities earlier this week issued a nationwide security alert over fears of violence around the anniversary and asked police to take extra care of their personnel and vehicles. Paramilitary Border Guard Bangladesh was deployed in the south-western district of Gopalganj, Hasina’s ancestral home and the birthplace of her father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

Media reports and analysts have said there has been unease in Bangladesh since Hasina said last month that she would return home by December. The anxiety grew after her party announced that she would appear virtually at the New Delhi-based Foreign Correspondents’ Club of South Asia on Wednesday. Ahead of the address, her US-based son and ICT affairs adviser Sajeeb Wazed wrote on social media, “The August 5 reminds us how an organised state, social system is grabbed by extremists under a unique design of some power greedy anti-Bangladesh quarters.” He also said the day had hurt Bangladesh’s democratic continuity and led to prolonged political unrest and a long-term crisis in different sectors of the state.

Before the event, Bangladesh prime minister’s information adviser Zahed Ur Rahman warned media outlets that publishing or broadcasting Hasina’s speech would invite strict legal action, saying it would violate an active ban by the ICT-BD, which sentenced her to death. But ICT-BD chief prosecutor Aminul Islam said there was no blanket legal ban on broadcasting or publishing Hasina’s statements, and said the tribunal had only restricted Bangladeshi media from airing remarks that contained ‘hate speech’ or undermined the special court’s dignity and image.

As Bangladesh marked the anniversary of the 2024 uprising, the inauguration of the memorial museum, the official commemorations and the heightened security reflected how strongly the events surrounding Hasina’s fall continue to shape the country’s politics.

With PTI Inputs

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