Indian police arrest alleged killers of Bangladesh student leader Sharif Osman Hadi
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A man holding up a placard amid tens of thousands of people gathering for a funeral prayer for student leader Sharif Osman Hadi in Dhaka on Dec 20, 2025.
PHOTO: REUTERS
NEW DELHI – Indian police said on March 8 they had arrested two Bangladeshi nationals accused of murdering a popular student leader in Dhaka, after they allegedly entered India illegally.
Mr 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 Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, was shot by masked assailants in 2025 and later died of 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 on March 8 that preliminary interrogation of two Bangladeshi nationals in their custody suggested they had been involved in Mr 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.
Mr Hadi’s death set off violent protests in Bangladesh, with angry mobs torching several buildings, including the premises of two major newspapers thought to favour India, as well as a prominent cultural institution.
The killing further strained ties between India and Bangladesh that had frayed since Ms Hasina fled the pro-democracy uprising and sought refuge in India.
India’s Foreign Ministry has said it rejects “false narratives” about New Delhi’s involvement in Mr Hadi’s killing.
In a sign of a potential thaw, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated the Bangladesh Nationalist Party for winning, in February, the first parliamentary election after Ms Hasina’s exit. AFP
