After Hadi, another Bangladesh student leader shot in head

Muhammad Motaleb Sikdar, Khulna Division head of Bangladesh’s NCP, was critically shot in the head by unidentified gunmen, days after the killing of youth leader Sharif Osman Hadi. He was hospitalized as authorities continue investigating political violence

Dhaka: Unidentified gunmen on Monday shot in the head a second leader of Bangladesh’s violent student-led 2004 uprising in the country’s southwestern Khulna city, days after the killing of prominent youth leader Sharif Osman Hadi.

“The Khulna Division head of NCP (National Citizen Party) and central coordinator of the party’s workers front, Muhammad Motaleb Sikdar, was shot a few minutes ago,” NCP’s joint principal coordinator Mahmuda Mitu said in a Facebook post.

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Mitu, a doctor, said Sarkar was rushed to Khulna Medical College Hospital in a critical condition.

The Kaler Kantha newspaper, quoting hospital sources, said Sarkar was shot on the left side of his head, and he was bleeding profusely when he was brought to the facility, where the doctors started emergency treatment.

The attack came days after 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 shot in the head on December 12 by masked gunmen at an election campaign in central Dhaka’s Bijoynagar area.

The 32-year-old Inqilab Mancha spokesperson died while undergoing treatment in Singapore on Thursday. Hadi was a candidate for the scheduled February 12 general elections.

Interim government of Muhammad Yunus staged a nationwide mourning for Hadi’s death on Saturday and said no stone would be left unturned to track down his killers as violence erupted in Dhaka and other major cities afresh over the attack and subsequent death.