The brother of a youth leader who played a key role in Bangladesh’s 2024 student-led protests has alleged that members of the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), opposition Jamaat-e-Islami and advisers to the interim government conspired to have him killed last year.
Sharif Osman Hadi, a critic of India and of ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s now-disbanded Awami League, emerged as a prominent figure during the protests that eventually led to her removal from power.
He founded Inqilab Mancha and was contesting as an independent candidate in parliamentary elections when he was shot during campaigning on December 12 last year. He died six days later.
General elections were held in February this year, with the BNP led by Tarique Rahman winning a landslide victory and replacing the interim government headed by Muhammad Yunus.
The allegation by Sharif Osman Hadi’s elder brother, Omar Hadi, was made in two Facebook posts on Tuesday night. He had previously claimed in December last year that sections within the interim government were involved in plotting his brother’s killing to derail the general election.
In his Facebook posts, Omar Hadi claimed that "a PS (private secretary) of Amer-e-Jamaat (Jamaat chief Shafiqur Rahman) was involved in creating the ground for murdering Shaheed (martyred) Osman Hadi."
"Some advisers (ministers) of the (past) interim government and lawmakers and ministers of the BNP government were directly involved in murdering Shaheed Osman Hadi," Omar Hadi wrote in the first post.
"Honourable Prime Minister (Tarique Rahman), expose to justice all those who were involved in Hadi murder," wrote Omar, who currently serves as a diplomat in the UK as the Yunus-regime gave him the compensation appointment following his brother's killing. He warned that unless the murderer/s were held, "they will kill you (Rahman) too."
Two Bangladesh nationals, identified as Rahul alias Faisal Karim Masud, 37, and Alamgir Hossain, 34, residents of Patuakhali and Dhaka respectively, were apprehended from West Bengal's border town of Bongaon in North 24 Parganas district on the intervening night of March 7 and 8 for allegedly killing Sharif Osman Hadi.
Masked gunmen shot him in the head in Dhaka during electioneering. He was eventually taken to a Singapore hospital where he died six days later.
Osman's death triggered violent protests by his supporters in Dhaka and other parts of Bangladesh, including attacks on news papers and progressive cultural groups and lynching of a Hindu factory worker in central Mymensingh.
The situation forced a key-aide of Yunus on home ministry affairs and former police chief Khuda Baksh Chowdhury to quit the government.
(With inputs from PTI)