Are Pakistan-Backed Hardliners Involved In The Murder Of A Far-Right Activist In Bangladesh? – OpEd
Back in December last year, the death of Bangladesh’s far right youth activist Sharif Osman Hadi, was weaponized as a pretext to dismantle the country’s premier cultural institutions that promotes the power of tolerance and harmony with music.
For over five decades including the independence war in 1971 against the Pakistani Armed Forces, those key institutions spread tolerance, peace and harmony in defiance of the toxic menace of religious dogmatism drawing the line between South Asian nation’s Islamic and Bengali identities.
But then came the fateful night -December 18, 2025.
In the name of mourning their leader who was shot by masked gunmen and died of bullet injuries, the extremist ecosystem including supporters from his platform Inqilab Mancha and thousands of rabidly armed Jamaat-e Islami activists, that aided Pak army in genocidal campaign in 1971, went on a rampage with pre announced call for violence, apparently under state patronage. Head offices of these organizations in the capital were looted, torched and damaged. Alongside, two leading newspaper offices were also torched and looted. All these acts of terrors were instigated by a volley of outrageous and motivated social media overdrive by self- claimed Pro Pakistani activists who branded these institutions “as integral part to Indian expansionist establishment” and “enablers of Hadi’s Killing” without any proof.
Now six months have elapsed but justice continue to elude millions of supporters who are aligned with these organizations and uphold similar spirit of cohesion.
Alarmingly, emboldened by impunity despite inflicting such horror, many of those perpetrators have now hit the street again issuing veiled public threats, triggered by a statement from former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banarjee regarding the death of Hadi.
Caught between outright election defeat and internal party feud, the beleaguered leader made the sudden claim on June 3 with regards to the murder.
In reference of arrest of two unverified suspects in the case by West Bengal Police during her time, she claimed India’s union home minister instructed her not to speak publicly about the matter in the interest of the state.
Independent experts questioned the timing behind the statement as they assert such high-stake unproven statements are designed as face-saving attempt at a time when Mamata’s credibility is on the line inside her party.
On the other hand, capitalizing on the momentum, these pro Pakistani outfits in Bangladesh promptly issued seven-day ultimatum demanding immediate action based on Mamata’s claim. Similarly these fanatics have also called out the elected government in India for this murder.
But the biggest blow for these cabal came from the admission of the slain leader’s brother.
Ostensibly pained by such brazen display of political score settling over his brother’s death, he posted on his facebook some facts he had concealed from public for past six months.
“A personal staff (PS) of Jamaat e Islami Ameer (Chief) was directly involved in creating the pretext that led to the murder of my brother (Osman Hadi deceased). We faced intense pressure to remove my brother from contesting Dhaka 8 constituency”, divulged, Shairf Omar Hadi in a facebook post.
In another post, he also held BNP and the interim regime responsible for his brother’s assassination.
Importantly, this is not the first time he has spoken about motive behind his brother’s murder that took place just two months before the last election. Days into the killing, he also publicly claimed that a quarter within the then interim government orchestrated the murder to derail the election.
This series of statement could have marked a new revelation for the investigators, aside from unproven Indian hand. But in their bid to spare Jamaat and the Yunus led interim regime from this serious charge, one of the leaders from the anti-India cabal even demonised the family member saying “Hadi’s brother may have been involved in the killing”.
But Jamaat and other outfits that weaponized anti India slurs have tactfully remained silent about the allegation of their involvement in the murder.
Instead, these outfits became more assertive and threatened more violence if the investigation of the murder goes beyond their line of campaign that intend to exclude involvement of Yunus regime and Jamaat behind the murder.
And under the interim government, the investigation did not cover such chilling allegations rather echoes the line of Jamaat orchestrated social media trial where a Hadi supporter was introduced as shooter. Even arbitrary detentions were carried out against family members of several activists associated with Awami League without any proof.
Is there any credible link between election and the murder?
The killing of Hadi just a day after Bangladesh announced a date for the first national elections since the regime change and subsequent violence clearly held potentials to delay the polls. And importantly, Yunus regime also reportedly got engaged with a campaign to run the country for at least five years without election. An extension of Yunus’s rule would have surely benefitted the outfit as it made significant gains under his rule.
Also now take into account a series of questions involving the highly publicized Bangladeshi youth implicated in the murder case. Now locked up in Indian prison, he reportedly admitted having sneaked into Indian territory due to fear of life in the wake of social media trial following the murder. A BNP leader publicly claimed a Jamaat aligned lawyer helped him secure bail from Bangladesh jail months before the murder.
Another recent revelation by Jamaat lawmaker Shafiqul Islam Masud exposed the total politicization of law enforcement including the armed forces. ‘Within two hours, I removed an officer-in-charge of a police station and an army major “changed” from his constituency,’ he said at a rally basking in the glory about his party’s absolute influence over the country’s security establishment, pouring in water on to the credibility of Bangladesh investigators.
Importantly, the continuation of five decades of denial by Jamaat and Pakistani military establishment over mass scale war crimes including genocide and rape in 1971 against Bengalis testifies that politics of denial has been a core part in Jamaat’s politics. So the claim over possible involvement of top Jamaat leader’s personal aid has to be investigated as the outfit has refused to respond to the allegations with facts. For Pakistan, getting India dragged into the killing through these proxies without any transparent investigation emerged out beneficial.
Failure to stop weaponiosation of this murder would add fuel to these extremist elements in their quest to attack the syncretic culture at a time when minorities and women are bearing the burnt of unprecedented rise of Jamaat that seeks to enforce Sharia law. Further strain in bilateral ties with India would push Bangladesh into more chaos as the youngest nation in South Asia needs regional partner like India to offset global headwinds emanating from ongoing war in the middle east.
