During her first major public political demonstration following her party`s recent defeat in the state assembly elections, Trinamool Congress (TMC) supreme leader Mamata Banerjee made highly explosive claims regarding the high-profile Osman Hadi murder. The veteran politician asserted that she knows the exact identities of the masterminds behind the assassination of the Bangladeshi activist. Banerjee warned that revealing the highly confidential details of the case publicly would instantly trigger massive socio-political unrest across Bangladesh. According to localized Kolkata media reports, the former Chief Minister made these statements on Tuesday during a mass sit-in protest at the Y-Channel in Esplanade, targeting the current Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) administration led by Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari over post-poll friction and urban eviction drives.The continuous political speech quickly escalated into an international diplomatic talking point.
Banerjee claimed that immediately after the West Bengal Police`s Special Task Force (STF) successfully apprehended the prime suspects in the assassination, she received an urgent personal telephone call from Indian Union Home Minister Amit Shah. She alleged that the Home Minister explicitly requested her to ensure that the state police kept the operational breakthrough strictly confidential from the press because it involved highly sensitive national security frameworks. The TMC leader explained that the prominent assassins had infiltrated Indian territory via the Meghalaya border before fleeing into West Bengal, where local intelligence units captured them. Directing sharp rhetorical questions at Shah, Banerjee asked whose interests the killers were serving and what specific names were uncovered during interrogation, adding that her memory remains an extensive archive of state secrets despite her recent ouster from governance.
The targeted victim, Sharif Osman Hadi, was a prominent independent parliamentary candidate for the Dhaka-8 constituency and served as the chief spokesperson for the influential social organization Inqilab Mancha in Bangladesh. On December 12, unidentified assailants riding a moving motorcycle intercepted his rickshaw on the busy Box Culvert Road in Purana Palton, Dhaka, opening fire at close range. He was rushed to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital in critical condition before being transferred to Evercare Hospital by his family. Hadi was subsequently evacuated to Singapore via a specialized air ambulance on December 15, where he succumbed to his injuries on December 18. His untimely demise sparked massive student-led demonstrations and intense public outrage across major Bangladeshi cities.
Following an intense cross-border intelligence operation, the West Bengal STF tracked down and arrested the principal accused, Faisal Karim Masud, alongside his accomplice Alamgir Hossain, on March 8 in the Bongaon area of North 24 Parganas district, located near the international border. Banerjee emphasized that she had intentionally withheld these operational secrets out of immense respect for national security, but was forced to speak out due to ongoing political high-handedness by the central government. She clarified that her deep affection for the people of Bangladesh prevents her from releasing the specific names of the masterminds at this juncture. The central ministry in New Delhi has yet to issue an official response to the public allegations.
