A short video clip of a lanky man with a wispy beard, dressed in a dark jacket and grey jeans, with a backpack strung behind his back, alighting from a Bangladesh Railways inter-city train at an unidentified station has taken social media by storm.
This man is being described as Faisal Karim Masud alias Daud Khan, who allegedly shot a young politician named Sharif Osman Hadi on October 12, the very day that the Bangladesh Election Commission publicly notified February 12, 2026, as the date for the much-awaited general election.
Hadi is the convenor of Inquilab Mancha, a right-wing, anti-India platform. He was seeking to contest the Dhaka-8 parliamentary constituency in the forthcoming elections.
The man hopped off the train, looked to his right and left before leaving the platform. This is where the video, of a mere 15-20 seconds’ duration, ends.
A TV news channel reported on December 14 that the man detrained at Mymensing station – after taking a waiting vehicle at Gazipur – before supposedly crossing over to India. The report’s underlying suggestion was the “escape” of the man (presumably Masud) into Meghalaya from where he then moved to Guwahati.
A few hours later, a UK-based Bangladeshi social media influencer posted a still photograph of Masud and his alleged partner in the crime, Alamgir Hossein, supposedly in an apartment in Guwahati in India’s Assam state. There was nothing to indicate which neighbourhood in Guwahati the apartment is.
The social media claims suggest that the suspects took a “selfie” together and shared it along with an Indian mobile number (+9160013940**). Masud and Hossein are said to have shared the selfie with several Bangladeshi mobile numbers. These messages were supposedly “intercepted” by a Bangladeshi intelligence agency which promptly shared it with a social media influencer.
The aim was to make it as obvious and clear as possible that the suspects were in India, even as such the suspects’ move to share their selfie defied conventional logic on not giving away any information that might compromise their whereabouts.
On December 15, a video posted on YouTube showed Mymensing-based Border Guard Bangladesh’s (BGB) Brigadier Sarker Mohammad Mostafizur Rahman explaining in detail efforts made by a Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) team and a squad from his force to track down Masud and his accomplice since December 12 night in the backdrop of reports that the duo had crossed over to India the same evening.
While Northeast News reported on December 14, quoting DMP Deputy Commissioner Talebur Rahman, that the suspects continue to be in Bangladesh, Brigadier Mostafiz said that “all efforts are on to track down the duo” who might be holed up on the Bangladesh side of the international border.
“We sealed all entry and exit points to the border between 8:30 and 9 pm on February 12. Our teams are on watch along the Sherpur-Mymensing Road and checkposts have been set up on all approach roads in the area. The entire stretch of the border along Mymensing remained under intense surveillance on December 13,” Brig Mostafizur Rahman said, adding that a DMP team reached the BGB sector command headquarters on December 13 night.
In coordinated operations, two separate teams of the BGB and the DNP have been trying to locate an alleged human trafficker, Phillip Senal, in the Nalitabari area of Sherpur and in Haluaghat on the India-Bangladesh border. The BGB activated its sources in the belt to locate Senal, suspected to be behind helping the duo cross over to India. Senal gave the BGB and DMP teams the slip after he was alerted by his wife Delta. This was confirmed when Delta’s phone was examined. “Senal is a suspect,” Brig Mostafizur Rahman said.
Reacting to suggestions that the two suspects crossed over to India, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in a statement on December 14 that “India has never allowed its territory to be used for activities inimical to the interests of the friendly people of Bangladesh. We expect that the interim Government of Bangladesh will take all necessary measures for ensuring internal law and order, including for the purpose of holding peaceful elections.”
The social media influencer had earlier posted, within a few hours of the shooting, a video clip (part of a CCTV footage) – likely supplied by a section within Bangladesh’s Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI) – showing two motorcycle-borne men behind a rickshaw carrying Hadi and another associate.
The pillion rider is seen pushing his right arm – wrapped in a newspaper or white cloth – out and taking aim at the rear of the rickshaw. This is being considered as an act of firing at Hadi. The rest of the video shows Hadi collapsing in the rickshaw seat, as a consequence of the bullet hitting the rear of his skull.
A profusely bleeding Hadi was rushed to Dhaka Medical College and Hospital, which referred the case to Evercare Hospital within a short time.
Now, inquiries by Northeast News show that the alleged shooter, Faisal Karim Masud, had close links with Hadi and frequented the latter are office, Inquilab Cultural Centre, at Banglamotors in Dhaka regularly. There is at least one document that shows that he was linked to the Chhatra League, the Awami League’s students’ wing.
Masud has a history of shady financial dealings and has had a brush with the police. Speaking with Northeast News over the phone, Adabor police station officer-in-charge Ziaur Rahman said that in November 2024 Saiful Islam, a resident of Baitul Aman Housing Society, complained that Masud had forcibly taken away BDT 17 lakh from him. Islam originally hails from Tangail district which is north of Dhaka.
At that time, Masud ran a tech consultancy office from the fourth floor of Baitul Aman Housing Society and occupied unit number 3C. This was corroborated by Sharmin Rahman, the principal of British Columbia School and College, a small-time private institution operating from an office unit in the same society. “Faisal was arrested by the police at that time from a unit right above my school,” Sharmin Rahman told Northeast News over phone.
On his part, Ziaur Rahman said that based on Islam’s complaint, the Adabor police arrested Masud on November 7, 2024, on charges of forcibly taking away BDT 17 lakh and possession of two illegal, unlicenced pistols, two magazine clips and five rounds of bullets. “He was sent to judicial custody where he remained till February 16, 2025, when he was granted bail by a city court. He finally left jail on February 21 this year,” the OC said.
ALSO READ: Dhaka Police to ‘Northeast News’: No evidence to suggest Hadi’s assailants crossed over to India
A photograph of Masud, flanked by two supposedly Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) men, appeared in Bengali daily Prothom Alo, with a sketchy report headlined, ‘Armed man arrested for looting BDT 17 lakh from Adabor school’. The photograph taken some time in the evening suggested that special lights had been turned on to capture a clear image of Masud. Masud’s bail application was moved by a Jamaat-e-Islami lawyer.
