MD Shamsul Alam is a Bangladeshi bureaucrat, researcher, political analyst, writer, and democracy and human rights activist. He currently serves as Senior Secretary in the Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh and was Personal Secretary to Prime Minister Khaleda Zia.[1] Alam gained international recognition during the 2024 Bangladesh student protests for coining the term "July 36," which became a rallying cry for protesters demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.[2]
Shamsul Alam joined the Bangladesh Civil Service in the administration cadre after securing a merit position in the 1988 competitive examination. His early postings included working in the Prime Minister's Office from 1992 to 1996 and 2001 to 2006, where he was involved in protocol affairs for the Prime Minister and later served as a private secretary to Prime Minister Khaleda Zia. He also held positions at the Economic Relations Division of the Ministry of Finance, the Bangladesh Institute of Administration and Management (BIAM) as a Deputy Project Director, and began his career as an officer at the Bangladesh Krishi Bank.
In September 2021, a member of the Awami League information and research subcommittee, Shawkat Ali Patwari Tuhin, served a legal notice against Alam for comments about Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina while Alam was residing in the United States. The notice concerned a Facebook post by Alam alleging that money was smuggled out of the country using diplomatic pouches during one of Hasina's official trips to Europe.[1]
During the 2024 Bangladesh protests, Alam was reported by some media outlets to have coined the term "July 36". According to these reports, Alam stated that he based the term on his analysis that intelligence and diplomatic sources predicted the fall of the Hasina government by July 2024. When the month ended without a resignation, the concept of "July 36" was used by some protesters to symbolically extend the month until their demands were met.[2]
More recently, after the regime change (when the Awami League government ended in August 2024), he has been involved in moves to get promotion/appointments, and there is public discussion about him being given or awarded the rank of Senior Secretary retroactively.[4]
Role in 2024 Bangladesh protests
Background to the protests
The 2024 Bangladesh protests began as a student-led movement against the quota system in government jobs and evolved into a broader anti-government movement demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Awami League government.[5] The protests gained momentum throughout July 2024, with demonstrators facing violent crackdowns from security forces.[6]
Alam's contribution to the 2024 protests came when he coined the term "July 36" during the height of the demonstrations.[2] According to Alam, the phrase emerged from his analysis of intelligence reports and diplomatic sources that had predicted the fall of Sheikh Hasina's government by the end of July 2024.[2]
Alam stated that intelligence agencies and sources from the United States Embassy in Dhaka had indicated that Hasina's government would likely collapse by July 2024.[2] As July drew to a close without Hasina's resignation, Alam introduced the concept of "July 36"—a symbolic extension of July that would continue until Hasina stepped down.[2] Rather than accepting that July had ended without achieving their goal, protesters could maintain that July itself would persist until victory was achieved.[2]
Popular adoption and impact
The "July 36" concept gained traction among protesters and became a symbol of determination and resilience. The protesters announced they would continue to count the days of August as extensions of July until their demands were met. Thus August 1 was counted as "July 32," while it continued until August 5 as July 36 when the ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina fled the country.[7] The phrase spread through social media platforms, appeared on protest banners and graffiti, and was adopted in chants and slogans throughout Bangladesh.[8]
According to analysis, the term served several functions:[9]
Maintained momentum: It prevented deflation that might have occurred when July ended without Hasina's resignation
Created unity: It gave protesters a shared symbolic framework for understanding their struggle
Demonstrated persistence: It communicated that the movement would not be constrained by timelines
Generated media attention: The concept attracted domestic and international media coverage
International recognition
Alam's creation of "July 36" gained recognition beyond Bangladesh's borders, with international media outlets noting the creative use of symbolism in the protest movement.[10] The term became associated with the innovative approaches used by the 2024 protest movement to maintain unity and momentum in the face of government repression.[9]
Broader commentary during the protests
Throughout the protests, Alam maintained an active presence on social media, providing real-time commentary and documentation of events as they unfolded. His posts reached a wide audience during the crisis period when mainstream communication channels were disrupted.
In the early stages of the movement, Alam published analytical articles examining the quota system's constitutional validity. On 11 July 2024, he wrote a detailed critique arguing that the 30% quota for freedom fighters' descendants was unconstitutional and discriminatory, noting that freedom fighters' families constituted only 0.01% of the population while receiving 30% of jobs.
When Prime Minister Hasina referred to quota reform protesters as "razakars" (collaborators) on 14 July, Alam documented the immediate student response and criticized the government's characterization of students, questioning Hasina's moral authority to remain in office after the statement.
As violence escalated from 16 July onward, Alam used his social media platform to document casualties and injuries. He maintained running tallies of deaths across different universities and districts, reporting figures that included students from Dhaka University, Begum Rokeya University, Jahangirnagar University, and numerous colleges. On 18 July, during the "shut down" programme, he reported 39 deaths and approximately 2,700 injuries, with 466 in critical condition.
He documented specific incidents of violence, including attacks on hospitals where injured students were being treated, and called for international attention, specifically appealing to the United Nations and human rights organizations to intervene.
On 18 July 2024, Alam published an open letter addressed to members of the military, police, border guards, and civil service. In the letter, he drew parallels to the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War, noting that security forces had initially followed orders during Operation Searchlight before eventually joining the independence movement. He urged security personnel to refuse orders to fire on unarmed protesters, emphasizing that the students were their own children and family members. The letter was signed "Shamsul Alam, one of you," referencing his background in government service.
Throughout the crisis, he repeatedly appealed to junior and mid-level security personnel to lay down their weapons. On 20 July, he wrote: "Police members who have fired or are firing on the people—look at your own lives and families and lower your rifle barrels and return to the barracks."
Alam also noted international responses to the crisis, including when the European Union suspended partnership talks with Bangladesh in response to the violence, and when the UN received evidence of excessive force. On 22 July, he criticized the use of UN peacekeeping vehicles in operations against protesters and called for international action against Bangladesh's security forces.
As the movement intensified in early August, Alam tracked reports of divisions within the military, stating on 4 August that junior and middle-level officers were refusing to act against protesters. He documented instances where the military intervened to protect protesters from attacks by Awami League activists in Mirpur and Cumilla.
On 5 August 2024, as Hasina fled the country, Alam posted: "As I said, a fall like Sri Lanka's," referencing the 2022 Sri Lankan protests that had ousted President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. He immediately called for the arrest of government ministers and officials to prevent them from fleeing, and announced that an interim government under Muhammad Yunus would be formed.
লীগের পতন থেকে শিক্ষা নিন। চাঁদাবাজি, দখলবাজি, লুটপাট বন্ধ করুন। এসব ক্ষেত্রে সিনিয়র জুনিয়র যাই হোক, সোজা বহিষ্কার করে আইনের কাছে সোপর্দ করুন। জুলাই বিপ্লবের পরে সময় বড় জটিল।
Translation:
Learn from the fall of the league. Stop extortion, land grabbing, and looting. In such cases, whether senior or junior, immediately expel them and hand them over to the law. After the July revolution, the times are very complicated.
Following the fall of the Awami League government, Alam maintained opposition to corruption and injustice through his social media posts. He urged officials and political parties not to repeat the practices of the previous government, warning them to avoid corruption, looting, and extortion. In one social media post, he wrote: "Learn from the fall of the League. Stop extortion, land grabbing, and looting. Whether senior or junior, directly dismiss and hand over to the law in these cases. Time is very complex after the July revolution."
On 20 September 2024, he published a detailed social media post alleging widespread corruption in senior civil service appointments, claiming that secretary-level positions were being sold for amounts ranging from 12 to 100 crore taka.[11]
In the post, Alam recounted multiple incidents where he alleged that intermediaries had approached civil servants with financial offers to secure secretary positions in various ministries. He claimed that written contracts, national ID card copies, and advance payments were involved in these arrangements. Alam stated he had personally declined such offers and praised officers who had refused similar proposals.
The post was widely shared on social media, receiving approximately 5,000 shares and attracting attention from prominent figures in Bangladesh. It generated significant media coverage and public discussion about corruption in the interim government's civil service appointments.[12]
Following the allegations, the interim government took action. On 22 September 2024, Md Mokhlesur Rahman was removed from his position as secretary of the Ministry of Public Administration and was moved to the Planning Commission.[13] While government officials did not explicitly link the removal to Alam's allegations, the timing coincided with the controversy his post had generated.
Alam's allegations reinforced his public stance against corruption and his commitment to transparency in government administration, consistent with his post-uprising calls for accountability and clean governance.
Awards and recognition
In 2025, Alam received the NHRS Human Rights Peace Award at the Second Dhaka International Human Rights Convention for his contribution as creator of the "July 36" concept.[14] The convention was organized by the National Human Rights Society and held at the Supreme Court Bar Association auditorium in Dhaka.
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