Fakhrul warns of 'targeted killings' after gun attack on Hadi

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir today (14 December) voiced concern that incidents similar to the gun attack on Sharif Osman Hadi may recur, warning that the enemies of Bangladesh are once again resorting to targeted killings in an attempt to destabilise the country.

"When Bangladesh is seeing a new sun and moving towards a new chapter, and when the people of Bangladesh are dreaming of building a democratic country through a fair election, at that very time its enemies have once again indulged in a killing spree," he said while talking to reporters after paying tributes to martyred intellectuals at the Martyred Intellectuals Memorial in Mirpur in the morning.

The BNP leader said if a free and fair election is held in due time, the country's democratic progress will continue and people's rights will be established.

He said the BNP strongly condemns the attack on aspiring Dhaka-8 independent candidate Sharif Osman Hadi. "We fear that similar incidents may happen again," Fakhrul said, reports UNB. 

Osman Hadi was shot in Dhaka on Friday (12 December), a day after the Election Commission announced the schedule for the upcoming general election and referendum, leaving him seriously injured.

He is currently undergoing treatment at Evercare Hospital with a bullet injury to his head.

Recalling the history of 14 December, Fakhrul said that when the defeat of the Pakistani occupation forces became inevitable and the Liberation War forces surrounded Dhaka, the occupation army, with the help of their collaborators, abducted and killed the nation's brightest minds to destroy Bangladesh intellectually.

"They picked up university teachers, doctors, researchers, writers, journalists and many others and killed them. It was a planned massacre aimed at making the nation intellectually weak," he said.

Fakhrul said the nation remembers this painful history every year on this day.

On behalf of party Chairperson Khaleda Zia, who is currently ill, and acting chairman Tarique Rahman, he said party leaders and activists came to the memorial to pay homage to the martyred intellectuals, marking the Martyred Intellectuals Day.

"We have taken an oath that, at any cost, we will protect Bangladesh's independence and sovereignty and move the democratic journey forward," Fakhrul said.

He paid his respect to all those who sacrificed their lives for the country's independence and democracy and also remembered BNP founder martyred president Ziaur Rahman, for his role in bringing fundamental changes to Bangladesh.

The BNP leader also remembered the young people who were killed during the July Uprising in 2024.

Senior leaders and activists of the BNP and its affiliated organisations were present there.