Nahida Islam, convener of the National Citizens’ Party (NCP), has denied allegations that the July campus uprising was orchestrated under instructions from Islami Chhatra Shibir.

In a Facebook post on Thursday (July 31), Nahida addressed the recent statement by Sadiq Kayem, a former Shibir leader, who claimed on a talk show that Shibir had an influential role in organizing the student platform ‘Chhatro Shokti’ and that its activities followed Shibir directives.

“That claim is entirely false,” Nahida wrote. “Chhatro Shokti emerged from a collaboration among participants of the ‘Gurubar Adda’ study circle, former members of the Dhaka University student rights group who had resigned, and a study circle based at Jahangirnagar University.”

She emphasized that significant groundwork had gone into building the new student organization through study circles and intellectual discussions. “Having been involved in campus politics for eight years, we knew and interacted with many different organizations, both formal and informal. That included Dhaka University’s Shibir. But communication or even occasional cooperation does not equate to political alignment or subordination,” she stated.

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Nahida further clarified that Sadiq was never a coordinator of the anti-discrimination student movement but began using that identity from August 5 onward. “Due to Shibir’s role during the campus uprising, Sadiq was given a seat at a press briefing. However, later he and others began publicly claiming that the uprising was led solely by Shibir and that we were just the face for their movement,” she alleged.

She acknowledged that Shibir members were involved to some extent but denied that they directed or controlled the movement. “Decisions were made through dialogue with all sides. This was not a unilateral action by Shibir. More details about those who tried to divide power or protect factional interests will be shared later,” she concluded.