Bangladesh police say student leader’s killers fled to India

DHAKA (AFP): Bangladesh police on Sunday said the alleged killers of popular student leader Sharif Osman Hadi had fled to India, in comments likely to further strain relations with its neighbour.

Hadi, a vocal India critic who took part in last year’s mass uprising, was shot by masked assailants in Dhaka earlier this month and later succumbed to his injuries at a hospital in Singapore.

His death set off violent protests with angry mobs torching several buildings, including two major newspapers deemed to favour India as well as a prominent cultural institution.

With protests being held across the country almost daily, pressure has been growing on Bangladesh’s interim government to arrest the killers of Hadi, who was set to contest general elections in February next year.

“The killing was premeditated. Those behind it have been identified,” SN Nazrul Islam, a senior Dhaka Metropolitan Police officer, said at a news conference.

Suspects Faisal Karim Masud and Alamgir Sheikh left Bangladesh through the Haluaghat border with India shortly after attacking Hadi on December 12, Islam said.

They were received at the border by two Indian citizens, who escorted them into the northeastern state of Meghalaya before handing them over to two accomplices.

Bangladeshi investigators were in contact with their Indian counterparts who had arrested the two suspected accomplices, Islam said.

“We are communicating with Meghalaya police, who have confirmed the arrest of two Indian nationals,” he added.

Two senior Meghalaya police officers however did not comment when contacted by AFP.

The Indian foreign ministry had earlier said it rejects “false narratives” about New Delhi’s involvement in Hadi’s killing.

Ties between the neighbours have deteriorated since ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina fled the pro-democracy uprising and sought refuge in India.

India says it is still considering Dhaka’s requests to extradite Hasina, who was sentenced to death in absentia for orchestrating a deadly crackdown on the uprising.

The lynching of a Hindu garment worker by a mob on December 18 has also hit ties.

Amid the deteriorating security situation in the Muslim-majority country, Khuda Baksh Chowdhury, special assistant to interim leader Muhammad Yunus overseeing the home department, stepped down on Wednesday.