Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed said Mir Quasem Ali told him he returned to Bangladesh because he feared his son would otherwise be taken away.
Ahmed made the remarks Wednesday at a reception and discussion for bereaved July uprising families and participants at the Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Center in Sher-e-Bangla Nagar.
He said Quasem Ali had been his friend and that the two had been imprisoned together at Kashimpur jail.
Ahmed said he had listened carefully to people who protested at the event and recognized the contribution of people who coordinated the July movement from the front and behind the scenes.
He said the movement might have been more organized if the prime minister had not been in exile for a long time, as many leaders at the time were in prison, disappeared or in hiding. He said the fall of Sheikh Hasina followed united public resistance. These were the minister’s political characterization of events.
Ahmed said he had spent 61 days in Aynaghar and described it as a place where no one could remain even for 24 hours. He said authoritarian rule had damaged families as well as individuals and urged unity.
He said the July uprising was the result of long preparation, sacrifice and struggle rather than a sudden event, and warned against turning it into the property of any political party.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report