Sharif Osman Hadi: Man of the streets

The tumultuous month of July 2024 saw the emergence of several student activists who provided organic leadership to a powerful popular movement that overthrew the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Sharif Osman Hadi, who died in Singapore on Thursday (December 18, 2025), was among those who took to the streets in July, though the uprising did not bring him immediate prominence. That came later, on September 27, 2024, when a well-known journalist and editor of Amar Desh newspaper returned from a five-and-a-half-year exile in Turkey.

On that day, Hadi led a team of activists to Hazrat Shah Jalal International Airport in Dhaka as Mahmudur Rahman, who had been targeted by Sheikh Hasina’s government for his journalism, returned on a Qatar Airways flight and delivered an emotional speech atop a truck. It was the first time Dhaka witnessed the organisational energy with which Hadi could marshal a spontaneous public event. In the months that followed, Hadi rose to prominence by articulating a plan to transform the July-August uprising into a concrete political project.

Political views

At the heart of his appeal, Hadi kept his identity as a Bengali Muslim (Bangali Mussalman). In a speech delivered earlier this year, Hadi recollected that as a cap-wearing Muslim in Dhaka University during the 2013 Shahbag movement, his teacher had referred to him as “Hefazat”, a derogatory short form of extremist group Hefazat-e-Islam, even though at that time he had several differences with the group. His language was rooted in the anti-colonial heritage of Bengal and south Asia as well as what he perceived as “India’s cultural hegemony over Bangladesh”. He also spoke in support of the victims of the Israeli bombing in the Palestinian Gaza Strip.

Also read | Bangladesh unrest after Sharif Osman Hadi’s demise

Student activists who led the uprising against Ms. Hasina went on to form two major streams in recent Bangladesh politics. One stream, led by Asif Mahmud Shajib Bhuyan, Mahfuj Alam and Nahid Islam, joined the interim government under Muhammad Yunus, while the other consisting of Hasnat Abdullah and Sarjis Alam gave shape to the National Citizen Party that was launched in February 2025.

Hadi belonged to a third group that did not get into the government nor did they get accommodated in the NCP. This third group provided muscle power and filled multiple voluntary organisations that gave life to the anti-Hasina movement. He was articulate and found support from the likes of Mahmudur Rahman, who, from Turkey, encountered Hadi in a zoom conference in early 2024. Hadi’s other supporters are the Paris-based Pinaki Bhattacharya and U.S.-based journalist Elias Hossain, who are leading critics of India’s role in South Asia.

One of the first things that Mr. Rahman did upon his return to Dhaka was to launch Amar Desh as a major newspaper in Bangladesh that focused on criticism of India and as a critic of India, Hadi found in Amar Desh a reliable vehicle that amplified his passionate voice overnight giving him a large following.

July Charter

In the meantime, Hadi, along with fellow travellers Ziaul Hasan, Rafe Salman Rifat and Afroja Tuli, formed Inquilab Cultural Centre and Inquilab Mancho that propagated their ideas. Hadi believed that over the past 16 years Bangladesh was ruled by a form of “cultural fascism” that was implemented at home by the Hasina government with support from India. The group often shared a platform with NCP as well as another radical outfit July Mancho.

In October 2024, the idea of a July Charter summing up the principles for a new road map of Bangladesh was floated by the student activists and an attempt was made to launch it by the end of December. That initiative failed when the military chief General Waker uz Zaman pushed back. Hadi and his team, however, kept the momentum for July Charter with his July Janata Red March and by his frequent appearances in the media that sustained enthusiasm for the Charter that was ultimately launched on the first anniversary of the downfall of Hasina on August 5, 2025. The charter is focus of a referendum that will take place alongside the next election scheduled for February 12, 2026.

Break with the past

Hadi’s politics preferred a clean break with Bangladesh’s past beginning with 1971 and in that he was placed against both the Awami League and an assortment of forces that Inquilab Mancho describes as “deep establishment” of Bangladesh. Hadi’s strong advocacy outside the interim government was one of the factors that pushed the interim government to ban the activities of Awami League.

He said the advisers of the interim government were not accountable to the people of Bangladesh but the people who fought against Ms. Hasina came from Jamaat-e-Islami, the BNP and the “July warriors” who need greater say in Bangladesh and deserve explicit support from the interim government. He also spoke openly about his dialogue with groups like Hefazat-E-Islam.

As he built pressure on the interim government for holding a referendum on the July Charter ahead of the general election, his differences with the BNP became clearer. The BNP spoke openly against attempts to reverse the legacy of the Liberation War, indicating their discomfort with the pro-Jamaat line of Hadi.

Hadi and his supporters, including his backers in the media, hit back at the BNP, criticising it of speaking “like the Awami League”.

Before being fatally shot on December 12, Hadi had started campaigning for the upcoming election from Dhaka 8 constituency. Choice of this constituency had pitted Hadi against BNP strongman Mirza Abbas. Mr. Abbas had been a Minister in the Khaleda Zia government of 2001-06 and had survived the Hasina-era despite the pressure he faced for being a prominent name of the BNP.

In his death, Hadi has thrown a spanner in the plans of the BNP’s acting chairperson, Tarique Rahman, who is expected to return from London on December 25, ending an 18-year exile. The Rapid Action Battalion has arrested Sanjay Chisim and Shibion Diu for allegedly assisting Faisal Karim Masud, the main suspect in the Hadi case, who has reportedly fled to India. Police have also arrested Masud’s parents. However, Hadi’s colleague Rafe Salman Rifat has accused Bangladesh “deep establishment” of being behind the murder.

Published – December 19, 2025 08:06 pm IST