Riots Erupt in Bangladesh After the Killing of a Student Leader

Newspaper buildings were set on fire after the death of an activist who was attacked recently. Political leaders fear more violence could derail attempts to restore democracy.

The death on Thursday of a politically prominent student leader attacked in Bangladesh ignited a wave of unrest in Dhaka, the capital, with mobs setting newspaper offices ablaze in a nation with a shaky hold on democracy.

Sharif Osman bin Hadi, 32, died at a hospital in Singapore, where he had been flown for medical care. He had lain in critical condition for a week since being shot in the head on Dec. 12. As a student leader, Mr. Hadi had become an outspoken critic of the authoritarian rule of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, whose government collapsed in August 2024 after a monthslong standoff with a youth-led movement.

According to the U.N.’s fact-finding report, at least 1,400 protesters were killed last year by the security forces and members of Ms. Hasina’s Awami League party.

After Mr. Hadi’s death, protesters poured into the streets of Dhaka late Thursday night, demanding justice. Arsonists also targeted the homes of several politicians in different cities.

“There’s too much smoke. I’m inside. You are killing me,” Zyma Islam, a young journalist, posted on Facebook. She was in the newsroom of The Daily Star, Bangladesh’s most read English newspaper, on Thursday night when a mob set fire to the building in central Dhaka.

Another journalist was waiting outside for a ride home at 11 p.m., he said, when “I saw a group marching to our office, chanting slogans against India.”

Ms. Islam and dozens of her colleagues eventually escaped. The headquarters of The Daily Star’s sister publication, the Bengali-language Prothom Alo, was attacked at the same time. Firefighters rescued another 28 people from its roof.

Ms. Hasina, who ruled Bangladesh with an iron grip for 15 years, fled to New Delhi last August and has been sheltered by the Indian government ever since. Muhammad Yunus, a Nobel Peace Prize recipient, has been running Bangladesh’s interim government while factions scramble for position. An election, which Ms. Hasina’s Awami League is barred from running in, is to be held on Feb. 12.

Mr. Hadi intended to run for Parliament as an independent candidate. He founded a cultural institution after Ms. Hasina’s downfall and led an innovative campaign at mosques after morning prayers. On talk shows, he criticized the Awami League and what he regarded as India’s malign influence on his country.

And he spoke about the risks that came with his politics. “We only want that if someone shoots us dead, they are caught and brought to justice,” he told an interviewer recently.

Mr. Yunus announced Mr. Hadi’s death on national television on Thursday night and called for a day of mourning on Saturday.

A national police force notorious for brutality under Ms. Hasina’s rule identified Faisal Karim Masud, a member of her party’s student wing, as the gunman and said there were more people involved. Officers brought in Mr. Masud’s parents, wife and friends for questioning but said he was still on the run.

Mr. Hadi’s friends have been pointing a finger at India since the day of the shooting. They claimed his assailants took refuge there. On Dec. 15, Hasnat Abdullah, another prominent student leader, said that if India shelters Mr. Hadi’s killers, Bangladesh should shelter India’s violent separatists.

Mr. Hadi’s friends said they would march to the Indian High Commission if the suspects were not returned to stand trial. Bangladesh’s acting government summoned India’s high commissioner in Dhaka to ask for help in finding Mr. Hadi’s killers.

In turn, the Indian authorities summoned Bangladesh’s high commissioner in New Delhi. India’s foreign ministry issued a statement, saying, “India completely rejects the false narrative sought to be created by extremist elements.”

Other leaders of last year’s youth movement denied attacking the news buildings. Two of the best known, who served as ministers in Mr. Yunus’s government, urged Bangladeshis to abstain from violence for the sake of their country’s reconstruction. A video showed one leader, Mahfuj Alam, in a square full of protesters Thursday night, calling for peace in honor of Mr. Hadi.

“Sharif Osman bin Hadi stands for democratic politics and for the kind of politics that builds structure, the kind of politics that builds institutions,” Mr. Alam said. “Law and order should be maintained.”

The country’s political vacuum has made it a dangerous place in the 16 months since Ms. Hasina’s government was toppled. Ain o Salish Kendra, a local human-rights watchdog, reported that mob violence killed at least 184 Bangladeshis this year.

On Friday, while protesters took to the streets in anger over Mr. Hadi’s death, the police reported that a mob had lynched a Hindu laborer in Mymensingh. The victim, Dipu Chandra Das, 27, was accused of blasphemy, the police said, and then tied to a tree and burned alive.

There was nothing in the police report to connect the death of Mr. Das to that of Mr. Hadi. Ms. Hasina’s party and India’s government, however, have claimed that Bangladesh’s Hindus have been left exposed and endangered since she left power.

Mr. Yunus denounced both the attacks against the newspapers and the murder of a member of the country’s Hindu minority.

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