Tens of thousands attend funeral of killed Bangladesh student leader
Dhaka: Tens of thousands of Bangladeshi mourners, including the country’s interim government leader, attended the funeral today of a slain youth leader and election candidate amid tight security.
According to Kashmir Media Service, Sharif Osman Hadi, 32, a key figure in last year’s student-led uprising that toppled longtime Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, was shot in the head by masked assailants in Dhaka last week while launching his campaign for an election due in February. He died on Thursday in Singapore after six days on life support.
His death has prompted a wave of unrest in the South Asian nation.
Police and paramilitary forces were deployed across the capital for today’s funeral, but there were no reports of any renewed violence.
Interim government leader Muhammad Yunus said Hadi’s legacy would endure, describing the funeral as a collective pledge to uphold the ideals he had championed.
“Today, we have come to promise you (Hadi) that we will fulfil what you stood for,” Yunus, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, told the mourners, who included Bangladesh’s army chief and representatives from across the political spectrum.
In a rare and symbolic honour, Hadi was laid to rest on the Dhaka University campus beside the grave of national poet Kazi Nazrul Islam.
Bangladesh is to elect a new parliament on February 12 — a transition many hope will help the Muslim-majority nation of 175 million people recover from nearly two years of instability and reclaim its position as a regional success story.
The government has declared Saturday a day of state mourning for Hadi and has urged citizens to resist “mob violence by fringe elements”, warning that turmoil threatens Bangladesh’s fragile democratic transition.
Human Rights Watch called Hadi’s killing a “terrible act”.
