Bangladesh Violence News Highlights: Bangladesh’s interim government led by chief Muhammad Yunus on Friday urged citizens to resist violence by “fringe elements” as the body of a prominent youth leader Sharif Osman Hadi arrived from Singapore, amid fresh unrest in the capital following overnight rampages triggered by his death.
According to police, alleged radical right-wing activists set fire to the main office of the left-leaning Udichi Shilpigoshthi in the capital shortly after Sharif Osman Hadi’s body arrived in Dhaka from Singapore, where he had been undergoing treatment for fatal gunshot wounds inflicted by masked gunmen on December 12.
“The arson destroyed everything (inside Udichi’s office),” said Jamshed Anwar, general secretary of the country’s largest cultural organisation, founded in 1968.
The blaze has been brought under control, the fire service said.
A large number of police, BGB, and army members are deployed in front of the office.
Who Was Sharif Osman Hadi?
Sharif Osman Hadi was one of the leaders who had taken part in the student-led protests last year, termed as the July Uprising, and a candidate for the scheduled February 12 general elections.
The body of Hadi, who was the spokesperson of the Inqilab Mancha, arrived at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) at around 6 pm local time on a Biman Bangladesh Airlines flight, amid tight security and widespread public mourning, state-run news agency BSS reported, quoting Biman General Manager (Public Relations) Boshra Islam.
Members of the Bangladesh Army, Armed Forces Battalion (AFB) and police were deployed in large numbers to maintain security when Hadi’s body was taken out of the airport, it added.
In a televised address to the nation on late Thursday, interim government Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus vowed to bring those involved in Hadi’s brutal murder to justice quickly, saying, “no leniency will be shown” to the killers.
He also urged citizens to keep “patience and restraint”.
