Youth leader's funeral prayers held in B'desh capital amid tightened security

Dhaka, Dec 20 (PTI) Bangladesh held the funeral of prominent youth leader Sharif Osman Hadi on Saturday, drawing a large number of people in the capital amid extra-tight security after his death triggered unrest across the country.

Just after the 32-year-old spokesperson of 'Inqilab Mancha' was laid to rest beside the grave of National Poet Kazi Nazrul Islam near the Dhaka University mosque, his party issued a 24-hour ultimatum to the interim government, demanding "visible progress" in the arrest of those responsible for his killing.

"Unless the government responds regarding the arrest of Sharif Osman Hadi's killers by 5:15 pm tomorrow, we will resume our sit-in agitation," the organisation's Member Secretary Abdullah Al Jaber said from a protest rally at Shahbagh.

After nearly three hours of demonstrations, protesters vacated Shahbagh, following which traffic in the surrounding areas gradually returned to normal.

Interim government Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus, along with his advisory council members and Army chief General Waker-uz-Zaman, attended Hadi's funeral held at the South Plaza of Parliament complex at Manik Mia Avenue.

Yunus spoke briefly ahead of the janaza (funeral prayers) as politicians representing former prime minister Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), Jamaat-e-Islami and student-led National Citizen Party (NCP) joined the prayers.

The country also observed a day of state mourning.

Hadi, a prominent leader of the student-led protests last year that led to the ouster of the prime minister Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League government, was a candidate for the scheduled February 12 general elections.

He was shot in the head on December 12 by masked gunmen at an election campaign in central Dhaka’s Bijoynagar area. He died while undergoing treatment in Singapore on Thursday.

According to television footage, the janaza was held after Hadi's body was brought after an autopsy at the state-run Suhrawardy Hospital.

Hadi’s elder brother Abu Bakar conducted the janaza and soon after the ritual, the body was quickly brought to the Dhaka University campus under stringent security escorts for burial.

“In line with the earlier announcement, the body was not kept for public viewing and only select people were allowed to witness the burial,” a police officer said.

Police allowed tens of thousands of people to join the funeral prayers, and ahead of the ritual, they chanted anti-India slogans like “Delhi or Dhaka - Dhaka, Dhaka” and “brother Hadi’s blood will not be allowed to go in vain.” Violent protests rocked Dhaka and major cities after Yunus confirmed Hadi’s death on Thursday.

Various parts of the country were rocked by attacks and vandalism, including stone-hurling at the Assistant Indian High Commissioner's residence in Chattogram, attacks on offices of leading newspapers Daily Star and Prothom Alo, and vandalism at Bangabandhu Memorial Museum.

A Hindu man was lynched to death and his body set on fire over alleged blasphemy in Mymensingh city. The deceased, identified as 25-year-old Dipu Chandra Das, was a factory worker in the city.

The interim government on Friday urged citizens to resist violence by “fringe elements” as Hadi's body arrived in Dhaka from Singapore, amid fresh unrest in the capital.

Police said alleged radical right-wing activists set fire to the main office of the left-leaning Udichi Shilpigoshthi in the capital shortly after Hadi’s body arrived in Dhaka.

Hadi drew the political limelight launching his radical right-wing cultural group 'Inquilab Mancha' after last year’s violent street campaign, dubbed the July Uprising, led by the Students Against Discrimination (SAD) campaign. PTI AR RD GRS NPK SCY SCY