18 December 2025Jessica RawnsleyandAnbarasan Ethirajan,Global affairs correspondentWatch: Large crowd burns rubble outside offices of prominent Bangladeshi newspapersViolence has erupted in Bangladesh following the death of a prominent leader of the youth movement that ousted former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.Sharif Osman Hadi was shot by masked attackers while leaving a mosque in Dhaka last week and died of his injuries on Thursday while being treated in Singapore.As news of his death emerged on Thursday, hundreds of his supporters gathered in a square in the capital city to protest.Later on, demonstrators vandalised the offices of prominent Bangladeshi newspapers The Daily Star and Prothom Alo, with one building set on fire."Hundreds of people have gathered here and carried out the attack," a police officer told BBC Bangla.Troops were deployed to the scene, while firefighters rescued journalists trapped inside the building.Hadi, 32, was a senior leader of the student protest group Inqilab Mancha and an outspoken critic of neighbouring India - where Hasina remains in self-imposed exile.Getty ImagesSharif Osman Hadi died while undergoing treatment in SingaporeBangladeshi political parties have mourned his death and urged the interim government to bring the perpetrators to justice.Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, who heads the caretaker government, called Hadi's death "an irreparable loss for the nation"."The country's march toward democracy cannot be halted through fear, terror, or bloodshed," he said in a televised speech on Thursday.The interim government declared a day of national mourning on Saturday.Getty ImagesGetty ImagesSoon after Hadi was shot, Yunus said it was a premeditated attack and "the objective of the conspirators is to derail the election"."No form of violence intended to disrupt the election will be tolerated," Yunus said. "The incident is a worrying development for the country's political landscape."Investigations are ongoing and several people have been detained in connection to the shooting.Hasina fled to India on 5 August last year, following weeks of student-led protests, bringing an end to 15 years of increasingly authoritarian rule.More on this story