Bangladesh faces escalating political violence following the assassination of prominent youth leader Sharif Osman Hadi, whose death has triggered widespread unrest targeting major media institutions and historical landmarks. The 32-year-old senior leader of student protest group Inqilab Mancha, who played a pivotal role in the 2024 uprising that ousted former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, was fatally shot by masked assailants in Dhaka on December 12, succumbing to his injuries in Singapore on Thursday.
The aftermath turned catastrophic as hundreds of protesters stormed the offices of Bangladesh’s two leading newspapers—The Daily Star and Prothom Alo—on Thursday night, setting both buildings ablaze in one of the most severe attacks on press freedom in the nation’s history. Twenty-eight journalists were trapped for hours on the rooftop, gasping for air amid suffocating smoke, until military reinforcements facilitated their rescue. Both publications sustained extensive damage, with The Daily Star unable to print its edition for the first time in 35 years.
Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus’s interim government condemned the violence, characterizing it as an assault on truth itself while vowing to deliver ‘full justice’ to perpetrators. The administration declared a national day of mourning on Saturday, with Yunus eulogizing Hadi as an ‘irreparable loss for the nation’ and denouncing the killing as a premeditated attempt to derail February’s historic elections—the first since Hasina’s ousting.
The targeting of these particular media outlets presents a complex puzzle: both publications maintained secular, progressive editorial stances that previously drew criticism during Hasina’s administration, yet they’ve recently expressed reservations about certain policies of Yunus’s interim government. Additional vandalism occurred at the residence of Bangladesh’s first president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman—Hasina’s father—indicating the violence spans multiple political symbols.
Hadi had emerged as a significant political figure following the 2024 protests, regularly appearing in media programs and amassing substantial public support alongside vocal opponents. His planned independent candidacy in the February elections was abruptly terminated just one day after authorities announced polling dates. The interim government has detained several suspects while investigations continue, amid concerns that the nation’s democratic transition is being jeopardized by forces thriving on chaos.