Osman Hadi Murder: Two Prime Suspects Flee to India via Meghalaya, Say Bangladesh Police

Two key suspects in the murder of Bangladeshi political activist Sharif Osman Hadi have fled to India through the Meghalaya border, Bangladeshi police said on Saturday, as Dhaka stepped up coordination with Indian authorities for their arrest and extradition.

According to Bangladesh’s Dhaka Metropolitan Police, the suspects — Faisal Karim Masud and Alamgir Sheikh — crossed into India via the Haluaghat border in the Mymensingh region shortly after the killing. The information was shared during a press briefing at the DMP Media Centre.

Additional Commissioner SN Nazrul Islam said the duo received logistical assistance while fleeing Bangladesh. After crossing the border, they were allegedly received by an individual identified as Purti and later transported by a taxi driver named Sami to Tura.

Bangladeshi authorities have claimed they received informal inputs suggesting that both Purti and Sami have since been detained by Indian agencies, though official confirmation is still awaited.

“We are maintaining communication with Indian authorities through both formal and informal channels to ensure their arrest and extradition,” Nazrul Islam said, as quoted by Bangladeshi media.

Osman Hadi, a prominent political figure and vocal critic of India and the Awami League, was shot in the head by masked gunmen in Dhaka on December 12. He was flown to Singapore for advanced medical treatment but succumbed to his injuries six days later.

Hadi had emerged as one of the faces of last year’s violent student-led protests, popularly known as the July Uprising, which eventually led to the fall of the Sheikh Hasina-led government. Following the unrest, he launched a political platform called Inqilab Mancha and was preparing to contest the parliamentary elections scheduled for February.

His killing triggered widespread violence across Bangladesh. In Dhaka, mobs set fire to the offices of leading newspapers Prothom Alo and The Daily Star, along with cultural organisations Chhayanat and Udichi Shilpi Goshthi.

The unrest later spread to central Bangladesh, where a Hindu factory worker was lynched by a mob in Mymensingh, further escalating communal and political tensions following Hadi’s death.