New Delhi: Violent demonstrations broke out in Bangladesh late Thursday (December 18) after authorities announced the death of youth leader Sharif Usman Hadi. Hadi was a prominent face of the 2024 mass movements that led to the fall of Sheikh Hasina’s government.
On December 12, Hadi was shot in the head by a masked attacker sitting on the back of a motorcycle. After this he was admitted to a hospital in Singapore for treatment.
According to DW, Singapore’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement issued on Thursday, “Despite the best efforts of doctors, Hadi could not recover from his injuries.”
As soon as the news of Hadi’s death came out, groups of protesters attacked the offices of two major newspapers of Bangladesh – the Bengali language Pratham Aalo and the English newspaper The Daily Star. As the protests intensified, the mob vandalized and set fire to the offices of both the newspapers.
According to Business Standard, computer CPUs, monitors and chairs were also looted from The Daily Star’s office.
The Daily Star reporter Mahmood Hasan said that by around 4:30 am on Friday (December 19), all the employees of the newspaper had been evacuated to a safe place. Earlier, the protesters gathered outside the newspaper office till around 2:40 in the night and some people were also seen going inside the building along with the army personnel.
It is noteworthy that Sharif Usman Hadi, one of the key leaders of the 2024 mass movement against the government of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, was known for his speeches, which were widely shared on social media. In his addresses he used to talk about justice, accountability, respect and justice. To his supporters, Hadi was an honest face in a political environment dominated by dynastic politics and backroom deals.
Hadi was the convenor of Inquilab Forums and was preparing to contest from a seat in the Bangladesh Parliament in the national elections to be held in February 2026.
Protesters also attacked New Age newspaper editor Nurul Kabir outside The Daily Star office in Dhaka.
According to BDNews, Kabir had come to talk to the crowd gathered there, which was vandalizing and arsoning the newspaper office. In a video of the incident, which took place around 2 am on Friday in the presence of the army, it can be seen that the mob pushes Kabir, grabs his collar and calls him ‘Awami League agent’ and ‘civil society agent’.
Expressing deep grief over Hadi’s death, Bangladesh’s interim chief advisor Muhammad Yunus called it an irreparable loss to the political and democratic landscape of the country. In his address to the nation, he appealed to the people to convert their grief into strength and declared Saturday (December 20) as state mourning day.
Yunus said, ‘All the people involved in this murder will be brought under the ambit of law as soon as possible and they will be given the harshest punishment.’
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