Violence erupts in Bangladesh after death of youth protest leader

Violence has erupted in Bangladesh following the death of a prominent leader of the youth movement that ousted former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Sharif Osman Hadi was shot by masked attackers while leaving a mosque in Dhaka last week and died of his injuries on Thursday while being treated in Singapore.

The shooting came a day after Bangladeshi authorities announced a date for the first elections since the uprising in 2024, which Hadi had been planning to contest as an independent candidate.

As news of his death emerged on Thursday, hundreds of his supporters gathered in a square in the capital city to protest.

Later on, demonstrators vandalised the offices of prominent Bangladeshi newspapers The Daily Star and Prothom Alo, with one building set on fire.

“Hundreds of people have gathered here and carried out the attack,” a police officer told BBC Bangla.

Troops were deployed to the scene, while firefighters rescued journalists trapped inside the building.

Hadi, 32, was a senior leader of the student protest group Inqilab Mancha and an outspoken critic of neighbouring India – where Hasina remains in self-imposed exile.

Bangladeshi political parties have mourned his death and urged the interim government to bring the perpetrators to justice.

Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, who heads the caretaker government, called Hadi’s death “an irreparable loss for the nation”.

“The country’s march toward democracy cannot be halted through fear, terror, or bloodshed,” he said in a televised speech on Thursday.

The interim government declared a day of national mourning on Saturday.

Soon after Hadi was shot, Yunus said it was a premeditated attack and “the objective of the conspirators is to derail the election”.

“No form of violence intended to disrupt the election will be tolerated,” Yunus said. “The incident is a worrying development for the country’s political landscape.”

Investigations are ongoing and several people have been detained in connection to the shooting.

Hasina fled to India on 5 August last year, following weeks of student-led protests, bringing an end to 15 years of increasingly authoritarian rule.

In November, she was sentenced to death for crimes against humanity after being found guilty of allowing lethal force to be used against protesters, 1,400 of whom died during the unrest.