India Arrests Two Bangladeshis Over Hadi Killing That Strained Dhaka New Delhi Ties
New Delhi: Less than three weeks after Tarique Rahman was sworn in as Bangladesh’s prime minister, Indian authorities have arrested two Bangladeshi nationals in West Bengal in connection with the killing of Bangladeshi political activist Sharif Osman Hadi, whose death had strained India-Bangladesh ties during the final months of Dhaka's interim government.
According to a press note issued by the Special Task Force headquarters in Kolkata on Sunday (March 8), officers acting on “secret credible information” raided the border area of Bongaon in North 24 Parganas on the intervening night of March 7-8.
They intercepted two Bangladeshi nationals identified as Rahul alias Faisal Karim Masud, 37, a resident of Patuakhali, and Alamgir Hossain, 34, from Dhaka, who had allegedly entered India illegally after “committing serious crimes including extortion and murder” in Bangladesh.
During preliminary interrogation, investigators said the two men allegedly confessed to involvement in the killing of Hadi, a Bangladeshi political activist. Police said the suspects told investigators they had entered India through the Meghalaya border after the attack and moved through different locations before reaching West Bengal.
Hadi, a 30‑something activist who emerged from the 2024 July Uprising that toppled Sheikh Hasina, was shot in the head by masked gunmen while campaigning in Dhaka on December 12 last year.
Hadi was shot in broad daylight on a busy Dhaka street. He was the spokesperson for and a key face of the Inqilab Mancha, a youth-driven platform that blended street mobilisation with religiously inflected calls for justice, and was sharply critical of both India’s influence in Bangladesh and the previous Awami League government.
After he was airlifted to Singapore for treatment, Hadi died on December 18, triggering days of violent protests across Bangladesh, with demonstrators attacking institutions they accused of being close to New Delhi. Mobs burnt down the offices of Bangladesh’s largest newspapers Prothom Alo and the Daily Star and even cultural organisations, while a Hindu worker was lynched amid a surge of polarised rhetoric.
The attempted assassination and subsequent death of Hadi had already sharpened tensions between New Delhi and Dhaka, with Bangladesh’s interim government summoning the Indian high commissioner last December to demand cooperation in ensuring that suspects did not escape into India and be extradited if they crossed the border.
In response, India “categorically rejected” allegations that its territory was being used to shelter anti‑Dhaka actors and insisted it had never allowed activities inimical to the “friendly people of Bangladesh”, even as both sides engaged in a cycle of summoning each other’s envoys over protests and rhetoric after Hadi’s death.
Dhaka’s interim leadership, headed by Muhammad Yunus, had also protested at the continued presence in India of Hasina, who faces a controversial International Crimes Tribunal death sentence in Bangladesh, and had been issuing political statements from Delhi.
The arrests come weeks after Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader Rahman assumed power in Dhaka following elections that Bangladesh held last month. New Delhi has made visible efforts to cultivate ties with him, with external affairs minister S. Jaishankar travelling to Dhaka for the funeral of Rahman's mother and former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi called Rahman to congratulate him after his party's victory and India sent Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla to attend Rahman's swearing-in ceremony.
India is likely to hope that the arrest of Hadi’s alleged killers early in the BNP government will help showcase cooperation in a politically sensitive case that had fuelled anti-India sentiment in Bangladesh – and could also give Rahman some political space to navigate a return to more stable ties with New Delhi amid heightened anti-India sentiment at home.
This article went live on March ninth, two thousand twenty six, at fifty-three minutes past twelve at night.The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.
