DHAKA (Kashmir English): A large number of protesters torched the offices of Prothom Alo and the Daily Star in Dhaka on Thursday night, responding to the death of Inquilab Mancha convener Sharif Osman Hadi at a hospital in Singapore.
Eyewitnesses said a group of people came from the Shahbagh area of the capital and forcibly entered the Prothom Alo office at Karwanbazar with slogans calling for an end to the Bangla daily.
The protesters, mainly students, accused the newspapers of promoting India’s agenda. At that time, they shouted various slogans against Prothom Alo and India.
More than four hundred protesters were able to reach the office of Prothom Alo around 11:00 pm and surrounded the office.
Moreover, the Daily Star building was also targeted, with windows broken and furniture destroyed.
The students were chanting slogans including ‘Naray-e-Takbir’, ‘Allahu Akbar’, ‘Bharoter Dalalera-Hushiar, Sabdhan’.
The Daily Star is widely seen as a secular, pro-India newspaper that was editorially sympathetic to the deposed Sheikh Hasina regime and its now proscribed Awami League party.
Osman Hadi’s Death
Osman Hadi, a prominent young political leader in Bangladesh who was seriously injured in a recent assassination attempt, has died during treatment.
Usman Hadi was a prominent leader of the student movement that led to the fall of the Hasina government in July and was also serving as the spokesperson for the Inqilab Mancha, a political platform established by student leaders.
Hadi was shot and injured by unknown assailants in Dhaka last Friday, after which he was immediately rushed to the hospital, where he underwent initial surgery.
He was later transferred to Singapore on Saturday for better treatment, but he died during treatment today.
Osman was keen to contest the upcoming Bangladesh elections as an independent candidate.
Singapore’s Foreign Minister visited him in hospital yesterday and told Bangladesh’s Chief Adviser Mohammad Yunus during a telephone conversation that Usman Hadi’s condition was critical.
According to Bangladeshi authorities, the investigation into the attack on Usman Hadi is ongoing, and 14 people have been detained so far in this regard.
