Bangladesh has been thrown into turmoil once again after a second student leader was shot in the head on Monday, just days following the death of radical youth figure Sharif Osman Hadi. The fresh attack targeted 42-year-old Muhammad Motaleb Sikdar, the Khulna divisional chief of the National Citizen Party (NCP), marking the second major shooting of a youth leader this December.
Fresh Shooting After Hadi’s Death Fuels Tensions
Police reported that Mr. Sikdar, also a central organiser of the NCP’s workers’ wing, was shot near Gazi Medical College Hospital in Khulna at about 11:45 am. Assailants apparently targeted his head in a chilling echo of the attack that claimed the life of Osman Hadi on December 12. Sikdar survived the assault and, according to doctors cited by local officials, is now out of danger.
This incident comes as Bangladesh wrestles with widespread unrest sparked by Hadi’s killing. Hadi, 32, was a prominent spokesperson for Inqilab Mancha—the Platform for Revolution—and was best known for leading the 2024 student uprising that resulted in the ousting of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina. Hadi, a polarizing figure, made headlines for his relentless anti-India rhetoric and was shot by masked assailants outside a mosque in central Dhaka. He succumbed to his wounds last Thursday.
National Citizen Party’s Rise and Anti-India Rhetoric
The National Citizen Party, officially launched on February 28, 2025, is Bangladesh’s first student-led political party—emerging from last year’s student protests and the subsequent fall of Hasina’s government. NCP grew out of the Students Against Discrimination movement and the Jatiya Nagorik Committee, attracting radical Islamic elements and consolidating youth opposition around social and political reform.
Amid the current chaos, Bangladesh’s Nobel laureate and interim chief, Muhammad Yunus, has pushed the nation’s politics closer to Pakistan, straining the country’s longstanding ties with India. NCP leaders and supporters have stepped up their provocative statements. At a heated protest rally, NCP’s Hasnat Abdullah even threatened that Bangladesh would provide safe haven to groups hostile to India, including those seeking to “sever” the northeastern ‘Seven Sisters’ states.
Meanwhile, cultural institutions in Bangladesh have also come under attack, and some see a pattern pointing towards external influence. Charges of Indian involvement in the unrest have made the situation even more combustible, with NCP leaders repeatedly blaming New Delhi for the violence.
Monday’s brazen shooting in Khulna underscores the dangerous new phase of political violence Bangladesh is confronting since the 2024 uprising. The questions now are how the interim government will restore calm—and whether the NCP’s growing influence will push the country further away from its neighbor, India.
