Jamaat, BNP could be behind Bangladeshi activist Osman Hadi killing: Bangla accused | Kolkata News
KOLKATA: Faisal Karim Masud, the 37-year-old who was caught on CCTV footage shooting at Bangladeshi youth activist Osman Hadi, alleged on Sunday Jamaat-e-Islami and the BNP could be behind the murder. He went on to claim the CCTV footage never showed him firing the shots.The statements came on a day when National Investigation Agency (NIA) appealed in court to question Masud and his accomplice, Alamgir Hossain (34), both arrested by the Bengal STF on March 8. The Bengal STF on Sunday produced the Bangladeshi duo in the Bidhannagar court after they finished 14 days in police custody. The court sent Masud and Hossain to prison until April 2 and allowed NIA to question them in Dum Dum correctional home.
The court also allowed the STF application to invoke Sections 16 and 18 of the UAPA Act against the accused. While being taken back to jail, Faisal told reporters he did not kill Hadi and hinted that it was a plot by Jamaat and BNP. “This could be a plot by Jamaat and the BNP,” he said. “You are making such a fuss over Hadi. The people of Bangladesh are also obsessed with Hadi. Who is he? He is just a Jamaat militant.” When reporters asked him about the CCTV footage clearly implicating him, Faisal said, “It (the CCTV) did not show me shooting.”Earlier, the Dhaka Metropolitan Police identified Faisal as the key shooter in the attack on Hadi on Dec 12, 2025, in Dhaka. Hadi died at a hospital in Singapore on Dec 18.Based on the interrogation of Faisal and others, the STF arrested a Bangladeshi tout, Philip Sangma, from Shantipur Bypass in Nadia on March 14. STF claimed Sangma helped Faisal and his accomplices cross the border into India. Faisal and Hossain reportedly entered India through the Meghalaya border and changed hideouts multiple times before reaching the border town.Hadi (32), a lecturer at the University of Scholars in Dhaka and spokesperson for the political platform, Inqilab Mancha, emerged as a prominent figure during the July 2024 uprising in Bangladesh that led to the fall of the Sheikh Hasina govt. He was shot at while campaigning in Dhaka and airlifted to Singapore, where he died on Dec 18.His killing, during a politically charged period, triggered protests and violence across Bangladesh, prompting authorities there to seek the extradition of the accused arrested in India as part of the ongoing cross-border investigation.After the arrest of Faisal and Hossain, the Bangladesh Police IGP, Ali Hossain Fakir, said in a press conference in Dhaka on March 9 that diplomatic efforts through the foreign ministries of India and Bangladesh were being intensified to repatriate the two accused persons.
