July Mass Uprising Day in Bangladesh Date in the current year: August 5, 2025

Hasina previously served as prime minister from 1996 to 2001 and was elected again in 2009. She was then reelected three more times, in 2014, 2019, and 2024. Her second tenure was widely criticized for election manipulation to maintain power, suppression of the opposition and media, extrajudicial arrests, forced disappearances and killings, corruption, oligarchy, and dictatorship.

Several months after Hasina’s reelection for a fifth term in June 2024, the Bangladeshi supreme court reinstated a controversial quota policy for public sector jobs. This policy served as a key catalyst for the July Revolution, also known as the July Mass Uprising. University students across the country began protesting the reinstatement of the quota policy.

On July 16, the government closed all educational institutions, leading to an intensification of the protests and clashes between protesters and law enforcement. These clashes resulted in numerous deaths, including protesters, law enforcement personnel, party affiliates, innocent bystanders, and children. By early August, estimates placed the death toll between 200 and 1,000, with thousands more injured.

Although the mass uprising against Hasina’s government continued into August, it is known as the July Mass Uprising or the July Revolution, thanks to a viral Facebook post by Shamsul Aman, an exiled Bangladeshi activist living in the US. On August 1, Aman wrote that July would continue until victory, and protesters agreed to count down the days of July until their demands were met.

On August 5, referred to by protesters as “July 36”, protesters announced the Long March to Dhaka. They called for people to march toward the capital to protest the nationwide curfew and press Hasina to resign. A large crowd gathered in front of the prime minister’s official residence and office. Later that afternoon, Hasina fled the country.

Her ousting was met with celebrations but also with violence between protesters and government loyalists and law enforcement. According to estimates, approximately a hundred people were killed that day on both sides. Hasan’s ousting also triggered a constitutional crisis, resulting in the formation of an interim government led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus as chief advisor.

In January 2025, the idea to declare August 5 a public holiday was first voiced. On June 19, 2025, Mostofa Sarwar Farooki, advisor to the Ministry of Cultural Affairs, confirmed the decision to observe it as a national holiday. On July 2, 2025, the government of Bangladesh officially declared August 5 a public holiday.

The inaugural July Mass Uprising Day celebration included a victory procession, as well as special events and activities, such as film screenings, assemblies, Sufi music performances, prayer gatherings, and remembrance ceremonies for those who died during the revolution.