The leader of Bangladesh’s 2024 uprising, who was wounded in an assassination attempt and flown to Singapore for treatment, has died in the city-state, officials said on Friday.
Masked assailants shot and wounded 32-year-old Sharif Osman Hadi in the ear as he left a mosque in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, a week ago.
“Despite the best efforts of doctors…, Mr. Hadi succumbed to his injuries,” Singapore’s foreign ministry said in a statement, adding that it was helping Bangladeshi authorities repatriate his body.
Hadi was a candidate in the February 2026 election, the first parliamentary polls since last year’s student-led uprising that toppled the autocratic government of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina.
He was flown to Singapore for treatment on Monday.
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In Dhaka, the interim government led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus confirmed Hadi’s death.
“I express my deepest condolences. His passing is an irreparable loss to the nation,” Yunus said.
“The country’s march towards democracy cannot be stopped by fear, terror or bloodshed,” he said in a televised address.
The government also announced special prayers in mosques after Friday prayers and half-day mourning on Saturday.
Hadi was a senior leader of the student protest group Inqilab Mancha and was an outspoken critic of India – Hasina’s old ally, where the ousted prime minister remains in self-imposed exile.
Search for gunmen
Police in Bangladesh have launched a manhunt for the attackers who shot Hadi, releasing photos of the two key suspects and offering a reward of five million taka (about $42,000) for information leading to their arrest.
Yunus, the 85-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate who led Bangladesh until a February 12 election, said last Saturday that the shooting was a premeditated attack carried out by a powerful network, without naming him.
He said the “aim of the conspirators is to derail the election”, adding that the attack was “symbolic – to demonstrate their strength and sabotage the entire electoral process”.
Muslim-majority Bangladesh, a nation of 170 million people, will directly vote 300 lawmakers into its parliament, with another 50 chosen from a list of women.
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On the same day, a referendum on the landmark package of democratic reforms will be held.
Tensions are high as the parties prepare for polls and the country remains volatile.
Convicted last month in absentia and sentenced to death, Hasina has refused to return to attend her trial. She remains in hiding in India, despite repeated requests from Dhaka for New Delhi to extradite her.
The last election, held in January 2024, gave Hasina a fourth consecutive term and her Awami League 222 seats, but was denounced as a fraud by opposition parties.
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), led by three-time former prime minister Khaleda Zia, is widely tipped to win the upcoming vote.
Zia is in intensive care in Dhaka and her son and political heir Tarique Rahman is due to return from British exile on December 25 after 17 years.
Disclaimer: This story was published from the agency’s news feed without editing the text. Only the title was changed.
