Bangladesh’s uprising leader critically injured in assassination attempt
DHAKA: Bangladesh’s interim government said it would fly a leader of the 2024 uprising, a candidate in upcoming elections, for treatment in Singapore after he was critically wounded in an assassination attempt.
Masked attackers shot student leader Sharif Osman Hadi on Friday as he left a mosque in the capital Dhaka, wounding him in the ear.
The shooting took place one day after authorities announced a date for the first elections since the student-led uprising that overthrew the autocratic government of Sheikh Hasina.
In a statement on late Sunday, the interim government said it will pay for Hadi to “be flown to Singapore for better treatment”, and that an “air ambulance and a team of doctors are on standby.” Hadi is a senior leader of the student protest group Inqilab Mancha and has been an outspoken critic of India, Hasina’s old ally, where the ousted prime minister remains in self-imposed exile.
Veteran journalist arrested for alleged ‘anti-state activities’
Hundreds of protesters gathered in Dhaka on Monday to condemn the shooting.
“It’s an attack on our political solidarity,” Gazi Sadia, a 21-year-old student, said.
Hadi’s Inqilab Mancha was represented at the rally alongside supporters of Bangaldesh’s largest Islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islami, and the National Citizen Party (NCP), which was formed by other students who spearheaded last year’s uprising.
“Anti-state activities”
Bangladesh police on Monday said they had arrested a veteran journalist for alleged “anti-state activities”, accused of promoting the banned party of ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina.
The arrest, which comes ahead of key elections in February, the first vote since the student-led uprising last year that overthrew the autocratic government of Hasina and her Awami League, sparked concerns from a key rights group.
Anis Alamgir was arrested under the Anti-Terrorism Act along with three others, accused of spreading propaganda in talk shows and social media posts, and conspiring to rehabilitate the Awami League.
The interim government banned Hasina’s Awami League in May under amendments to the Anti-Terrorism Act — a move Human Rights Watch condemned as “draconian”.
“Anis Alamgir has been arrested on accusations of conspiring against the state,” said Kazi Mohammad Rafiq, officer-in-charge of Uttara West police station in the capital, Dhaka.
Three others were named in police documents alongside Alamgir, including actress Meher Afroz Shaon.
Rights organisation Ain o Salish Kendra condemned the arrest.
“Using a law, originally enacted to prevent terrorist activities, against freedom of expression and journalism is against the fundamental principles of a democratic state,” it said in a statement.
Published in Dawn, December 16th, 2025
