Massive crowds gathered in Bangladesh’s capital on Saturday for the funeral of a slain student leader, held under tight security after two days of protests and violence.

Tens of thousands of people joined the funeral procession to pay their respects to Sharif Osman Hadi, a key figure in last year’s pro-democracy uprising who was set to contest the general elections in February.

He was shot by masked gunmen last week while leaving a mosque in Dhaka, and died in a hospital in Singapore on Thursday.

“You are in our hearts, and you will remain in the heart of all Bangladeshis as long as the country exists,” interim leader Muhammad Yunus said in an emotional speech in front of the parliament building, where funeral prayers were held.

Police wearing body cameras were deployed in the area, and flags were flown at half-mast to mark a day of state mourning.

Hadi’s body was then buried at the central mosque of Dhaka University.

Hadi, 32, was an outspoken critic of India, where Bangladesh’s ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina has taken refuge since fleeing Dhaka in the wake of the 2024 uprising.

Iqbal Hossain Saikot, a government employee who travelled to the capital to attend the funeral, told AFP that he believed Hadi was killed because of his staunch opposition to India.

“The millions of Bangladeshi people who love the land and its sovereign territory” will carry on Hadi’s legacy, said Saikot, 34.

Hadi’s death has triggered unrest, with protesters across the South Asian nation demanding the arrest of those responsible.

Bangladeshi police said they had launched a manhunt for his killers but have yet to report progress.

As news of Hadi’s death spread on Thursday, people set fire to several buildings in Dhaka, including the offices of leading newspapers Prothom Alo and the Daily Star, accused by critics of favouring India.

– ‘Anarchy’ –

Cultural institutions and the residence of a former minister were also attacked by rampaging mobs.

Fuelled in part by growing anti-India sentiments in the majority Muslim nation, the violence this week also saw a Hindu garment worker killed following allegations of blasphemy.

Yunus said seven suspects had been arrested in connection with the killing of the worker, Dipu Chandra Das, in the central district of Mymensingh on Thursday.

Rights group Amnesty International on Saturday expressed alarm over Das’s “lynching”, while urging Bangladesh’s interim government to carry out “prompt, thorough, independent and impartial” investigations into Hadi’s killing and the violence that followed.

Political parties across the spectrum condemned the violence and expressed concern over public order and security in the build-up to the elections — Bangladesh’s first polls since Hasina’s autocratic government was ousted.

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The Bangladesh Nationalist Party accused a “long-identified group” — a likely reference to Hasina’s Awami League party — of “trying to push the country towards anarchy”.

Awami League has been banned from contesting in the upcoming polls.

Nahid Islam, convener of the National Citizen Party set up largely by students who took part in the 2024 uprising, slammed the government for failing to rein in rogue elements.

“There are elements within the government opposed to the mass uprising, and they are actively at play,” he said in a statement.

Ties between neighbours Bangladesh and India have deteriorated since the uprising, with Dhaka demanding New Delhi extradite Hasina, who has been sentenced to death in absentia after being charged with crimes against humanity.

Hasina, 78, has denounced her trial and the verdict, calling it a “travesty of justice” and vowed to continue serving her people.

At a protest on Friday, a 20-year-old student told AFP he believed Hadi’s killers were also hiding in India.

AFP