Dhaka [Bangladesh], February 28 : The young student group in Bangladesh that stormed the uprising to oust former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in August last year, has now launched a new political party on Friday.
Nahid Islam, who recently resigned from Muhammad Yunus' interim government, is leading the National Citizen Party (NCP) and has promised to establish a "New Bangladesh".
Thousands of youth, mostly students, gathered at Manik Mia Avenue, south of the parliament building in the capital, Dhaka. Many of them were waving the national flag of Bangladesh and chanting the slogan "Inqilab Zindabad" (Long live revolution). NCP will be a liberal party, the leaders said.
"We want unity and equality," Nahid Islam, the leader of the party, said, with a red ribbon tied on the head, commemorating the revolution and added, "We are not Pro-Indian or Pro-Pakistani, We will make Bangladesh with the interest of Bangladeshi people."
"We want to say a dream of future Bangladesh. We broke the conspiracy to weaken Bangladesh through division. The fascist government has destroyed the state institutions in last 15 years," Islam further said.
NCP, the new political party, has targeted the younger generation as they are the majority of Bangladesh's total population.
According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), the number of people under 29 years of age in the country is about 57 percent of the total population. Among them, the number of 15 to 19-year-olds are the highest. The population of this age is more than 10 per cent of the total population.
In August 2024, a student-led movement ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina after weeks of protests and violence. According to a UN fact-finding assessment report, as many as 1,400 people could have been killed during the protests. Hasina, 76, fled to India, and an interim government led by Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus was subsequently formed.
United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres is likely to visit Bangladesh in mid-March amid political tensions in the South Asian country.
Earlier on Tuesday, Bangladesh Army Chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman said that Bangladesh's sovereignty will be in jeopardy if people do not set aside their differences and stop slinging mud at each other.
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