The July Uprising did not take place under the instructions or direction of the camp: Nahid

National Citizens Party (NCP) convener Nahid Islam has commented that the July Uprising did not take place under the instructions or direction of the Islamic Student Camp. He raised these issues in a long status posted on his verified Facebook page on Thursday (July 31). Nahid Islam wrote, ‘Shibir leader Sadiq Kayem recently said in a talk show that Shibir was involved in the formation of student power, we worked under Shibir’s instructions. This is a lie. A section involved in the ‘Gurubar Adda’ study group and a section that resigned from DU Student Rights formed the student power. A study circle from JU was also involved.’ Stating that the Gurubar Adda study group has been working for a long time to establish a new student organization, he further wrote, ‘We have been doing politics on campus for eight years. As a result, we knew all the open and closed organizations and leaderships and we had contact and relations with all the parties. That is why we had contact with DU Shibir as well. Contact, relations or cooperation does not mean that they were involved in our political process.’ The NCP convener claimed that Sadiq Kayem was not a coordinator of the anti-discrimination student movement, saying, ‘But he has been using this identity since August 5. Due to Shibir’s important role in the uprising, Sadiq Kayem was arranged to sit in the press briefing. But Sadiq Kayem and his supporters have been campaigning heavily after the uprising. DU Shibir led this uprising, we were just posters in front of it.’ Nahid said, noting that no one has denied Shibir’s role in the uprising, ‘But this uprising was not a unit of Shibir, nor was there any instruction or direction from Shibir. We used to make decisions after contacting all the parties. “And I will talk about who is trying to divide power and protect group interests another day.”