Sharif Osman Hadi, a senior leader of Bangladesh’s 2024 student-led uprising, has died in a Singapore hospital following an assassination attempt in Dhaka last week. Masked attackers shot the 32-year-old outside a mosque, wounding him in the ear, before he was airlifted to Singapore for treatment. Singapore authorities confirmed his death and are assisting Bangladeshi officials with repatriation.
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Hadi was a candidate in the February 2026 parliamentary elections, the first polls since the uprising that toppled former prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s autocratic rule. Bangladesh’s interim government, led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, expressed deep condolences, calling Hadi’s death an “irreparable loss” and reaffirming that the country’s democratic march would not be derailed by violence. Special prayers and a half-day of mourning have been announced in Dhaka.
Demonstrators filled the streets of Dhaka after Bangladeshi political leader Sharif Osman Hadi died in a Singapore hospital on December 18, 2025.
Hadi, a prominent figure in the 2024 student uprising, had been shot in the head days earlier in the capital in an apparent… pic.twitter.com/OftWofCQUC
— TRT World (@trtworld) December 19, 2025
Bangladesh Gen-Z revolutionary leader Osman Hadi, who fought the Sheikh Hasina government in 2024, was shot by gunmen a few days ago and has passed away today.
▶️Protests erupted in Dhaka as soon as the news of his death came out. pic.twitter.com/snJjCEuKdh
— Rizwan Ghilzai (Remembering Arshad Sharif) (@rizwanghilzai) December 18, 2025
A senior leader of the student protest group Inqilab Mancha, Hadi was known for his outspoken criticism of India, where former prime minister Hasina remains in self-imposed exile after being convicted in absentia and sentenced to death. Authorities in Bangladesh have launched a manhunt for the attackers, releasing photographs of two key suspects and offering a reward of five million taka (approximately $42,000) for information leading to their arrest.
Yunus described the attack as premeditated, carried out by a “powerful network” aiming to sabotage the upcoming elections and demonstrate strength. The elections, scheduled for February 12, will choose 300 parliament members directly, with another 50 seats allocated on a women’s list. A referendum on a landmark democratic reform package will also be held simultaneously.
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Political tensions remain high in Bangladesh as major parties prepare for the polls. The opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), led by former prime minister Khaleda Zia, is widely expected to perform strongly, while her son Tarique Rahman is set to return from Britain on December 25 after 17 years in exile.