UNIDENTIFIED gunmen on Monday shot a second leader linked to Bangladesh’s student-led protests in the head, this time in the southwestern city of Khulna, 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 joint principal coordinator Mahmuda Mitu said in a Facebook post.
Mitu, a doctor, said Sikdar was rushed to Khulna Medical College Hospital in a critical condition.
The Kaler Kantha newspaper, quoting hospital sources, said Sikdar was shot on the left side of his head and was bleeding when he was brought to the hospital, where doctors began emergency treatment.
The attack came days after Hadi, a 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 during 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.
The interim government led by Muhammad Yunus declared nationwide mourning for Hadi’s death on Saturday and said no stone would be left unturned to track down his killers, as violence erupted again in Dhaka and other major cities following the attack and his death.
