The West Bengal Police’s Special Task Force on Sunday said that it arrested two citizens of Bangladesh who are allegedly connected with the killing of Bangladeshi activist Sharif Osman Hadi, ANI reported.
The two arrested men are Rahul alias Faisal Karim Masud and Alamgir Hossain. They were arrested near the Bongaon border area on charges of illegally entering and staying in India.
Masud is believed to be the prime accused person in Hadi’s killing, while Hossain is alleged to be his associate, The Daily Star reported.
The Special Task Force alleged that Masud and Hossain illegally entered India through the Meghalaya border, and then travelled to different parts of the country, ANI reported. They subsequently travelled to Bongaon with the intention of crossing back to Bangladesh, the authority said in a press release.
Masud and Hossain were on Sunday produced before a court, which sent them to police custody, ANI reported.
Hadi was a prominent leader in the 2024 student protest that led to the ouster of the earlier Bangladesh government headed by Awami League leader Sheikh Hasina.
He was shot on December 12 while he was leaving a mosque in Dhaka. He died on December 18 at a hospital in Singapore, where he had been flown for treatment.
Hadi’s death had led to unrest in parts of Bangladesh, during which the offices of newspapers The Daily Star and Prothom Alo were attacked.
The Bangladesh Police had alleged that Masud and Hossain had crossed into Meghalaya with the help of Indian residents and had taken refuge there. The Border Security Force had, however, denied the claims.
The paramilitary force’s chief in Meghalaya, Inspector General OP Upadhyay, had said that “the claims were completely false, fabricated, and misleading, and there is no evidence to support them”.
The Bangladesh Police have claimed that Hadi was killed on the instructions of leaders linked to the Awami League and its student wing, the Chhatra League. It has alleged that the killing was the result of “political vendetta”.
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