Bangladesh police say killers of student leader Osman Hadi fled to India

• The police are identifying the suspects in the case of the murder of Sharif Osman Hadi.
• Bangladesh seeks India’s cooperation in killing Hadi.
• Protests intensify in Bangladesh after death of student leader.
  

DHAKA: Bangladeshi police said on Sunday that the alleged killers of popular student leader Sharif Osman Hadi had fled to India, in comments that could further strain relations with its neighbour.

Handi, a vocal Indian critic who took part in last year’s mass uprising, was shot by masked assailants in Dhaka earlier this month and later succumbed to his injuries in a hospital in Singapore.

His death sparked violent protests with angry mobs torching several buildings, including two major newspapers seen as pro-India, as well as a prominent cultural institution.

With protests taking place across the country almost daily, pressure has mounted on Bangladesh’s interim government to arrest the killers of Hadi, who was set to contest general elections in February next year.

“The killing was premeditated. Those behind it have been identified,” SN Nazrul Islam, a senior officer of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police, told a press conference.

Suspects Faisal Karim Masud and Alamgir Sheikh fled Bangladesh through the Haluaghat border with India shortly after the attack on Hadi on December 12, Islam said.

They were met at the border by two Indian citizens, who escorted them to the northeastern state of Meghalaya before handing them over to two of their accomplices.

Bangladeshi investigators were in touch with their Indian counterparts who had arrested the two suspected accomplices, Islam said.

“We are in touch with the Meghalaya police, who have confirmed the arrest of two Indian nationals,” he added.

Two senior Meghalaya police officers, however, did not comment when contacted AFP.

India’s foreign ministry earlier said it rejected “false narratives” about New Delhi’s involvement in Hadi’s assassination.

Ties between the neighbors have soured since the ousted prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, fled a pro-democracy uprising and sought refuge in India.

India says it is still considering Dhaka’s extradition requests for Hasina, who was sentenced to death in absentia for orchestrating a deadly crackdown on the insurgency.

The lynching of a Hindu garment worker by a mob on December 18 has also soured relations.

Amid the worsening security situation in the Muslim-majority country, Khuda Baksh Chowdhury, a special assistant to interim leader Muhammad Yunus overseeing the interior ministry, resigned on Wednesday.