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Violence broke out in Bangladesh’s capital early on Friday after a youth leader of the country’s 2024 pro-democracy uprising who was injured in an assassination attempt died in a hospital in Singapore.
Thousands of protesters took to the streets of Dhaka after the death of Sharif Osman Hadi, 32, was announced, to demand that his killers be arrested.
Several buildings in the capital, including those housing the country’s two leading newspapers, were set on fire, according to authorities, with staff trapped inside.
Hadi was a key figure in last year’s uprising that ended the autocratic rule of the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, and sent her fleeing to India. He was running for a parliament seat in the February 2026 national 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 treatment, where he succumbed to his injuries on Thursday.
At least three cases of arson were reported in Dhaka after the news of his death spread early Friday, a spokesperson for the fire brigade and civil defence force said, including a fire at the Daily Star building and another at a building housing the Prothom Alo newspaper. Violence was reported in a number of cities across Bangladesh, including Chattogram.
The two papers are the largest in the country, but protesters accused them of being aligned with neighbouring India, where Hasina has taken refuge.
Zyma Islam, a reporter for the Daily Star, said she was trapped inside the burning building.
“I can’t breathe anymore. There’s too much smoke. I am inside. You are killing me,” she wrote on her Facebook page.
The fire at the Daily Star building was brought under control at 1.40am (19.40 GMT on Thursday), firefighting officials said.
However, 27 employees were still inside.
“We took refuge at the rear of the building and could hear them chanting slogans,” said Ahmed Deepto, a Star reporter, referring to protesters.
The house of India’s deputy ambassador to Bangladesh was also surrounded by hundreds of people who were trying to demonstrate in a sit-in, but police lobbed teargas shells to disperse the crowd, according to local news reports.
In addition, protesters blocked a key highway leading from the capital and attacked the residence of a former minister in Chattogram in the country’s south-east, according to footage shown on local television.
Protesters also attacked Chhayanaut, a centre in Dhaka devoted to Bengali culture.
Earlier on Friday, Singaporean authorities announced Hadi had died in a local hospital.
“Despite the best efforts of the doctors … Mr Hadi succumbed to his injuries,” Singapore’s foreign affairs ministry said in a statement, adding that it was assisting Bangladeshi authorities with repatriating his body.
In Dhaka, the interim government headed by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus confirmed Hadi’s death.
“His demise is an irreparable loss for the nation,” Yunus said in a televised speech.
“The country’s march toward democracy cannot be halted through fear, terror or bloodshed.”
The government also announced special prayers at mosques on Friday and a half day of mourning on Saturday.
Hadi, a senior leader of the student protest group Inqilab Mancha, was an outspoken critic of India, where Hasina remains in self-imposed exile.
Bangladeshi police, meanwhile, have launched a manhunt for Hadi’s shooters, releasing photographs of two key suspects and offering a reward of 5m taka (about $42,000) for information leading to their arrest.
Muslim-majority Bangladesh, a nation of 170 million people, will in February directly vote for 300 lawmakers for its parliament, with another 50 selected on a women’s list.
The last elections, held in January 2024, gave Hasina a fourth straight term and her Awami League 222 seats, but were decried by opposition parties as a sham.
The Bangladesh Nationalist party, led by three-time former prime minister Khaleda Zia, is widely tipped to win the coming vote.
Zia is battling a reported lung infection in intensive care in Dhaka, and her son and political heir Tarique Rahman is set to return from exile in Britain after 17 years on 25 December.
