Bangladesh on Wednesday inaugurated the July Mass Uprising Memorial Museum at Ganabhaban, the former official residence of ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina, to preserve the history of the 2024 student-led uprising and honour those killed during the movement.
Prime Minister Tarique Rahman formally opened the museum by unveiling a plaque at Ganabhaban in the capital's Sher-e-Bangla Nagar, coinciding with the second anniversary of the day Hasina fled the country. The prime minister then toured the museum's galleries and exhibitions, featuring preserved artefacts, photographs, official documents, video footage and memorabilia related to the uprising.
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A documentary tracing the movement's chronology, the sacrifices of people from all walks of life, and the events leading to its success was screened at the inaugural ceremony.
Former interim government chief adviser Muhammad Yunus, Liberation War Affairs Minister Ahmed Azam Khan, Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed, Cultural Affairs Minister Nitai Roy Chowdhury and the prime minister's adviser on information and cultural affairs, Zahed Ur Rahman, were among those present at the event.
According to a February 2025 UN rights office report, up to 1,400 people were killed and thousands injured between mid-July and mid-August 2024 as Hasina's government ordered a security crackdown on student-led protesters demanding reform of a government job quota system. Hasina fled to India on August 5, 2024, ending her 15-year rule, and the interim government led by Yunus took charge three days later.
The museum has also created memorials preserving the names and memories of nearly 4,000 victims of enforced disappearance and killings, spanning the July uprising as well as the earlier Shapla Square incident and the BDR mutiny, with more than 2,500 symbolic graves constructed as part of the ongoing project.
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Ganabhaban itself has a longer history: after independence, founding president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman initially worked from the Presidential House on Minto Road, before the government began construction of the current Ganabhaban complex in Sher-e-Bangla Nagar in 1973 as the prime minister's official residence and office. It was this compound that thousands of protesters stormed on August 5, 2024, as Hasina's government collapsed.
The museum will remain reserved for special guests and victims' families on the inauguration day, before opening to the public with online tickets priced at Tk 50 for adults and Tk 25 for children.
It was the Yunus-led interim government that had first initiated the process of preserving the site and setting up the museum, though the opening had been delayed several times, including a planned launch on the first anniversary in August 2025 that did not materialise.
With inputs from PTI
