Who Was Sharif Osman Hadi? Angry protesters stormed the offices of Bangladesh's two leading newspapers late Thursday after news reached the country from Singapore of the death of a prominent activist in last year’s political uprising in Bangladesh. The crowds set fire to the building of one of the dailies, trapping journalists and other staff inside.
What happened to Sharif Osman Hadi
Sharif Osman Hadi, a spokesperson for the Inqilab Moncho culture group, died in a hospital in Singapore earlier in the evening, after losing a weeklong battle for his life.
He was shot on the streets of Dhaka, the Bangladesh capital, last Friday while riding on a rickshaw. Two men on a motorbike followed Hadi, and one shot him before they fled the scene. After days of treatment in Dhaka, he was flown to Singapore in critical condition.
Authorities have said they identified the suspects and that the shooter had most probably fled to India, remarks that sparked a new diplomatic squabble with India and prompted New Delhi this week to summon Bangladesh’s envoy to express its condemnation. Bangladesh also summoned the Indian envoy to Dhaka and sought clarification.
Hadi was a fierce critic of both neighbouring India and former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, whose 15-year rule of Bangladesh ended in last year’s uprising.
Hadi had planned to run as an independent candidate in a major constituency in Dhaka in the next national election,s which the country’s interim government has announced for February.
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Since Hasina’s ouster, the Inqilab Moncho group has promoted anti-Indian sentiment in the Muslim-majority country. Hasina now lives in self-imposed exile in India.
Hundreds of protesters took to the streets of Dhaka
Witnesses and media reports said hundreds of protesters took to the streets of Dhaka immediately after the news of Hadi’s death, rallying on Shahbagh Square near the Dhaka University campus, where many chanted slogans such as Allahu Akbar, or God is great in Arabic. There were also similar protests elsewhere in the country.
Later, a group of protesters gathered outside the head office of the country’s leading Bengali-language Prothom Alo daily in Dhaka’s Karwan Bazar area. They then surged into the building, according to online portals of various leading media outlets.
A few hundred yards away, another group of protesters pushed into the premises of the country’s leading English-language Daily Star and set fire to the building, according to footage from Kaler Kantha, another mainstream newspaper.
(With inputs from agency)