A day after the convenor of a so-called new political party was shot by two bike-borne assailants in a central Dhaka road, evidence has begun emerging of the likely hand of a Bangladesh intelligence agency behind the attack aimed at implicating the Awami League’s students’ wing.
Sharif Osman bin Hadi, who heads the newly formed Inquilab Mancha, was shot while he was on a rickshaw, in Culvert Road of Purana Paltan in central Dhaka on December 12 afternoon, and received a bullet behind his skull a day after the Bangladesh Election Commission notified February 12, 2026, as the date for the general election.
Hadi is an independent candidate seeking to contest the Dhaka-8 constituency for the February 12 general election.
The bullet, fired by one of two motorcycle-borne assailants, pierced the rear of Hadi’s skull, causing extensive internal damage. He remains admitted at Evercare Hospital, where he is fighting for his life. Hadi originally hails from Nalchhiti in Jhalokathi district.
Available CCTV footage and other assorted still photographs suggest a conspiracy involving the Jamaat-e-Islami’s student wing, Chhatra Shibir, even as a state security agency quickly shared details of the incident and the assailant’s alleged Chhatra League antecedents with at least one social media influencer to pin the blame on the Awami League’s students’ wing.
The alleged bespectacled assailant, identified as Faisal Karim Masud alias Daud Khan, was supposedly involved in a robbery at a school in Dhaka, where he is said to have looted BDT 17 lakh, in November. Daud was ‘nabbed’ by the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) on November 24, 2025.
At least one photograph showed him, supposedly handcuffed, and flanked by two armed RAB men whose uniforms and general appearance indicate they were anybody but RAB troops.
An undated video clip shows Daud sitting to the right of Hadi as part of a ring of other Inquilab Mancha supporters inside what appears to be a library or a cultural centre. Daud is seen pulling out a mobile phone from his jeans pocket. The video suggests that Daud knew Hadi and may have been part of his own party circle.
Another video clip, which clearly showed Hadi and Daud, dressed in a black shirt and crouching amidst other Inquilab Mancha supporters hours before the attack on the former, is even more intriguing. A third video clip shows Hadi and a handful of party supporters walking along a central Dhaka road moments before he hopped onto a rickshaw along with a second colleague dressed in a red T-shirt.
Several unanswered questions related to the photograph (Daud between two RAB troops) and the videos (shot by an unknown person on the day of the incident) have cropped up.
1. How did Daud get legal relief within a month when he was (supposedly) charged for serious crimes such as robbery and possession of weapons? Was he released on bail for such heinous crimes? Who appeared as his lawyer in court?
2. Where in Dhaka does Daud live? Who does he live with? Did the police visit his house and question his parents or other relatives to find out his whereabouts on December 12?
3. How did he get access to arms (within a month after ‘committing’ the robbery) that he supposedly used to fire on Hadi on December 12?
4. How did a social media influencer get to possess information related to this ‘investigation’ less than 12 hours after the incident occurred on the afternoon of December 12?
5. Who in Bangladesh police or intelligence agency supplied the social media influencer with documents when the assailants were yet to be nabbed?
6. Did Daud know Hadi intimately enough to be sitting next to him in a small gathering at the cultural centre?
7. Who rode the motorcycle that was used to follow Hadi on the day of the attack?
8. Was Daud prepared and primed by his ‘captors’ to be involved in a plan to ‘get rid’ of Hadi within hours of the declaration of the tafseel – electoral notification – that set February 12 as the date of the election?
A particular social media influencer living abroad was supplied documents that ‘show’ Daud as a Chhatra League functionary even as other Awami League supporters refuted – again on social media – such insinuations. This same social media influencer had earlier claimed in a Facebook post that 80 Indian and Awami League agent provocateur had infiltrated Bangladesh to cause disturbance in the country.
More questions emerge. How did he know the exact figure? Who supplied him with this number? Was it a particular unit of the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI)? If indeed 80 such agents provocateurs have come into Bangladesh, why have they not been interdicted or arrested so far?
Hadi’s antecedents are as murky and dubious as many others in the National Citizens Party (NCP) and sundry other outfits that emerged post-August 2024. An abusive, anti-India baiter, Hadi’s diatribes against the neighbouring country, besides his apparent willingness to accept wads of money thrust into his pockets by small-time wheeler-dealers and ‘businessmen’ suggest that his involvement in Bangladesh’s politics post August 2024 has more to do with opportunistic personal ambitions rather than genuine intent to cleanse the country’s politics.
The alacrity and zeal Bangladeshi law enforcement agencies displayed in ‘nabbing’ Daud after he committed the robbery in November 2025 does not quite match the sluggishness in pursuing the same person now being branded as a Chhatra League hitman.
