Man, this one hurts. Bangladesh has been on edge for a while, and now this just hit everyone in the chest. Sharif Osman Hadi — that young guy who became one of the loudest faces of last year’s protests against Sheikh Hasina — is gone. He died last night in a hospital in Singapore. Early thirties, full of fire, gone way too soon.
On December 12, he was simply riding through Box Culvert Road in Paltan, Dhaka, sitting in one of those He’s out. Two men on a motorcycle pulled up, shot him in the head, and sped away. Campaigning ’cause he was going to run as an independent in Dhaka-8 for the elections coming up in February.
People freaked out, rushed him to Dhaka Medical College Hospital. Docs operated straight away, but it was rough—the bullet messed him up bad. Moved him to Evercare, the fancy one, but he wasn’t getting better. On the 15th, Yunus and the interim government arranged an air ambulance, flew him to Singapore General Hospital,and sent his brother along—everyone hoping the doctors there could pull him through.
But nah. Around 9:30 last night our time, he passed. His brother called the family from Singapore, and Inqilab Mancha—the group he was running—put it up on Facebook, calling him a martyr for standing up against foreign meddling and all that.
The moment the news dropped, Dhaka went nuts. Shahbagh got blocked solid—hundreds of people out there chanting his name, burning stuff, saying catch the killers now or we’re shutting the whole country down. Some were even yelling for the home minister guy to quit ’cause security’s been trash. Yunus came out and declared national mourning today, flags half-mast, said they’ll throw the book at whoever did this and that the government will look after his wife and little kid.
Osman wasn’t some old politician, bro. He came straight outta those 2024 July protests—the ones students started that turned into this massive thing and changed everything. Dude was fearless, always going hard against Hasina’s crew and what he called Indian influence. Could fire up a crowd in seconds.
Now everybody’s paranoid this is the beginning of election violence. Cops say they’ve grabbed like 15-20 people linked to it, figured out who the shooter and driver were—word is those two might’ve already slipped across the border—but the main guys are still out there.
They’re bringing his body back soon. Feels like we just lost one of the real faces of that whole uprising. All those students and young people who risked everything saw him as one of them. Makes you wonder what’s next, you know? Shit’s heavy.
Sources:
The Daily Star
Prothom Alo
New Age Bangladesh
The Business Standard
Dhaka Tribune
Times of India
Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Hindustan Times and Firstpost report
