Hundreds of thousands of mourners gathered in Dhaka on Saturday for the funeral of prominent Bangladeshi activist Sharif Osman Hadi, whose death from gunshot wounds has intensified political strife just months before crucial national elections.
National Mourning for a Fallen Figure
The funeral prayers were held under tight security outside the national Parliament complex. Hadi's body had been repatriated on Friday night, and the government declared Saturday a national day of mourning. The activist, a spokesperson for the Inqilab Moncho culture group, was buried on the Dhaka University campus beside the grave of Bangladesh's national poet, Kazi Nazrul Islam.
Mourners, many carrying the national flag, chanted slogans including "We will be Hadi, we will be fighting decades after decades" and "We will not let Hadi's blood go in vain". The massive turnout reflected Hadi's status as a key figure in the political uprising last year that ended former prime minister Sheikh Hasina's 15-year rule.
A Shooting That Sparked Violence and Diplomatic Tension
Sharif Osman Hadi was shot in Dhaka on 12 December and later died in a Singapore hospital on Thursday, 19 December 2025. He had planned to run as an independent candidate in a major Dhaka constituency in the upcoming February elections.
Police stated they have identified suspects and believe the shooter likely fled to India, where Hasina has been in exile since 5 August 2024. This allegation has triggered a diplomatic dispute, with both Bangladesh and India summoning each other's envoys this week.
The news of Hadi's death on Thursday evening led to immediate unrest. Groups of protesters attacked and set fire to the offices of two leading national newspapers. The country's interim leader, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus, has appealed for calm.
A Nation at a Political Crossroads
Hadi was a fierce critic of both neighbouring India and the exiled Sheikh Hasina. His death occurs during a critical transitional period for Bangladesh, as the Yunus-led interim government attempts to steer the country back to democracy through the February polls.
The government has banned Hasina's Awami League, one of the nation's two major political parties. The other key party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party of former prime minister Khaleda Zia, hopes to form the next government. In the political vacuum left by the Awami League's absence, the Jamaat-e-Islami party—the country's largest Islamist group with a controversial history linked to the 1971 independence war—is leading an alliance to expand its influence.
Adding to the complexity, Sheikh Hasina has been sentenced to death in absentia on charges of crimes against humanity. The Yunus government's repeated requests for her extradition from India have so far gone unanswered.
