Violent protests in Bangladesh after pro-democracy determine dies in hospital | Bangladesh

Violence broke out in Bangladesh’s capital early on Friday after a youth chief of the nation’s 2024 pro-democracy rebellion who was injured in an assassination try died in a hospital in Singapore.

1000’s of protesters took to the streets of Dhaka after the loss of life of Sharif Osman Hadi, 32, was introduced, to demand that his killers be arrested.

A number of buildings within the capital, together with these housing the nation’s two main newspapers, have been set on fireplace, in response to authorities, with employees trapped inside.

Hadi was a key determine in final 12 months’s rebellion that ended the autocratic rule of the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, and despatched her fleeing to India. He was operating for a parliament seat within the February 2026 nationwide election.

On 12 December, Hadi was shot by masked assailants as he was leaving a mosque in Dhaka. He was airlifted to a hospital in Singapore for therapy, the place he succumbed to his accidents on Thursday.

No less than three circumstances of arson have been reported in Dhaka after the information of his loss of life unfold early Friday, a spokesperson for the fireplace brigade and civil defence power mentioned, together with a fireplace on the Day by day Star constructing and one other at a constructing housing the Prothom Alo newspaper. Violence was reported in quite a few cities throughout Bangladesh, together with Chattogram.

The 2 papers are the biggest within the nation, however protesters accused them of being aligned with neighbouring India, the place Hasina has taken refuge.

Zyma Islam, a reporter for the Day by day Star, mentioned she was trapped contained in the burning constructing.

“I can’t breathe anymore. There’s an excessive amount of smoke. I’m inside. You might be killing me,” she wrote on her Fb web page.

The hearth on the Day by day Star constructing was introduced below management at 1.40am (19.40 GMT on Thursday), firefighting officers mentioned.

Nonetheless, 27 staff have been nonetheless inside.

“We took refuge on the rear of the constructing and will hear them chanting slogans,” mentioned Ahmed Deepto, a Star reporter, referring to protesters.

The home of India’s deputy ambassador to Bangladesh was additionally surrounded by a whole lot of people that have been attempting to exhibit in a sit-in, however police lobbed teargas shells to disperse the gang, in response to native information studies.

As well as, protesters blocked a key freeway main from the capital and attacked the residence of a former minister in Chattogram within the nation’s south-east, in response to footage proven on native tv.

Protesters additionally attacked Chhayanaut, a centre in Dhaka dedicated to Bengali tradition.

Earlier on Friday, Singaporean authorities introduced Hadi had died in a neighborhood hospital.

“Regardless of one of the best efforts of the docs … Mr Hadi succumbed to his accidents,” Singapore’s international affairs ministry mentioned in an announcement, including that it was helping Bangladeshi authorities with repatriating his physique.

In Dhaka, the interim authorities headed by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus confirmed Hadi’s loss of life.

“His demise is an irreparable loss for the nation,” Yunus mentioned in a televised speech.

“The nation’s march towards democracy can’t be halted by worry, terror or bloodshed.”

The federal government additionally introduced particular prayers at mosques on Friday and a half day of mourning on Saturday.

Hadi, a senior chief of the coed protest group Inqilab Mancha, was an outspoken critic of India, the place Hasina stays in self-imposed exile.

Bangladeshi police, in the meantime, have launched a manhunt for Hadi’s shooters, releasing pictures of two key suspects and providing a reward of 5m taka (about $42,000) for info resulting in their arrest.

Muslim-majority Bangladesh, a nation of 170 million folks, will in February straight vote for 300 lawmakers for its parliament, with one other 50 chosen on a girls’s record.

The final elections, held in January 2024, gave Hasina a fourth straight time period and her Awami League 222 seats, however have been decried by opposition events as a sham.

The Bangladesh Nationalist celebration, led by three-time former prime minister Khaleda Zia, is broadly tipped to win the approaching vote.

Zia is battling a reported lung an infection in intensive care in Dhaka, and her son and political inheritor Tarique Rahman is ready to return from exile in Britain after 17 years on 25 December.