NEW DELHI: Indian police said on Sunday they had arrested two Bangladeshi nationals accused of murdering a popular student leader in Dhaka, after they allegedly entered India illegally.

Sharif Osman Hadi, a vocal India critic who took part in the mass uprising in 2024 that led to the ouster of Bangladesh’s then-premier Sheikh Hasina, was shot by masked assailants last year and later died from his injuries at a Singapore hospital.

Bangladeshi police alleged that the killer had fled to India, a claim rejected at the time by Indian authorities.

However, police in India’s West Bengal state, which borders Bangladesh, said that preliminary interrogation of two Bangladeshi nationals in their custody suggested they had been involved in Hadi’s murder.

There was “secret credible information” that the pair had fled Bangladesh and illegally entered India, trying to “take shelter in the border area… with the intention of crossing back into Bangladesh”, the police said in a statement.

Hadi’s death set off violent protests in Bangladesh, with angry mobs torching several buildings including two major newspapers deemed to favour India, as well as a prominent cultural institution.

The killing further strained ties between India and Bangladesh that had frayed since Hasina fled the pro-democracy uprising and sought refuge in India.

Published in Dawn, March 9th, 2026