The brother of slain Bangladeshi student leader Sharif Osman Hadi has levelled serious allegations against the country’s interim government, accusing those in power of orchestrating the killing to sabotage the upcoming national elections.
Addressing the Muhammad Yunus-led interim administration, Hadi’s brother, Omar Hadi, alleged that elements within the government were behind the murder. “It is you who had Osman Hadi killed, and now you are trying to foil the election by using this as an issue,” Omar Hadi said, according to The Daily Star.
He made the remarks at a ‘Shahidi Shopoth’ programme organised by Inqilab Mancha in front of the National Museum at Shahbagh in Dhaka. Omar Hadi claimed that a section within the government had planned the killing to derail the general elections scheduled for February 12, in which his brother was set to contest as a candidate.
Issuing a stark warning to the interim government, Omar Hadi drew a parallel with the fate of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who fled the country after the 2024 uprising. “Ensure the trial of the killers quickly so that the election environment is not disrupted,” he said. “The government has failed to show us any visible progress. If justice for Osman Hadi is not delivered, you too will be forced to flee Bangladesh one day,” he added, as quoted by The Daily Star.
He further alleged that his brother had been targeted because he refused to submit to any authority or “foreign masters”, suggesting that his independence had made him a threat to powerful interests.
Sharif Osman Hadi had emerged as one of the most vocal faces of the 2024 protests that culminated in Sheikh Hasina’s resignation and her departure for India, where she remains in exile. He was a prominent student leader and convener of the Inqilab Mancha. He was shot while leaving a mosque in Dhaka earlier this month and later died during treatment at a hospital in Singapore, plunging Bangladesh into unrest.
News of Hadi’s death on December 18 triggered widespread outrage across Bangladesh, with hundreds taking to the streets. The protests soon escalated into violence, with mobs vandalising public property and torching the offices of several media organisations.
Amid the turmoil, a Hindu worker, Dipu Chandra Das, was lynched by a mob along the Dhaka–Mymensingh highway on the night of December 18. According to reports, he was tied to a tree and set on fire in the Jamirdia Dubaliapara area, further deepening the sense of crisis in the country.
