CA meets family of Hadi, vows justice and full medical support

Bangladesh’s interim chief adviser, Professor Muhammad Yunus, has met the family of Sharif Osman Hadi, a political activist and prospective parliamentary candidate who was critically wounded in a shooting widely seen as a test of the country’s fragile post-uprising transition.

The meeting took place on Saturday morning at the state guest house Jamuna, where Yunus spoke with Hadi’s brother Abu Bakar Siddique, his sister Masuma, and senior figures from the Inqilab Mancha platform, which emerged as a key force during the July uprising.

Yunus assured the family that the government was taking all possible steps to ensure Hadi received the best available medical treatment. He said the entire country was praying for his recovery and added that arrangements would be made for treatment abroad if doctors deemed it necessary.

“If his condition requires treatment outside the country, the government will ensure he is treated wherever needed,” Yunus said, according to officials present at the meeting.

Hadi, a spokesperson for Inqilab Mancha and a likely independent candidate for the Dhaka-8 constituency, has become a symbolic figure for supporters of the July uprising, which reshaped Bangladesh’s political landscape earlier this year. His shooting has heightened fears of targeted violence aimed at intimidating activists and derailing the electoral process.

Speaking emotionally, Hadi’s sister described him as a lifelong idealist shaped by poetry and rebellion. “From childhood, he loved this country with all his heart,” she said. “He was drawn to revolutionary poetry and loved reciting it. He has a 10-month-old child. Hadi is the backbone of our family.”

She appealed directly to the interim government to protect those who carried the July movement forward. “You are a revolutionary government. You must protect the revolutionaries of July at any cost,” she said, warning that failure to do so would place the country’s independence and sovereignty at risk.

Leaders of Inqilab Mancha pressed for swift accountability, arguing that the attack was not an isolated crime but part of a broader pattern of intimidation. Abdullah Al Jaber, a senior leader of the platform, said Hadi had refused to retreat from public life even after many activists returned home following the upheaval in August.

“After 5 August, many people stepped back. Hadi did not,” Jaber said. “He embodied the July uprising and worked day and night for it.” He also called for an investigation into how the suspected gunman, previously arrested in another case, had been released on bail.

Another Inqilab Mancha leader, Fatema Tasnim Juma, urged the government to ensure comprehensive security for those she described as “fighters of July”, saying their safety was essential to preserving the gains of the uprising.

Yunus said law enforcement agencies had been instructed to act with urgency and that a full investigation was underway to identify not only the attackers but the wider network behind the assault. “Those involved in this brutal attack will be brought to justice,” he said.

Senior advisers, including law adviser Asif Nazrul, environment adviser Rizwana Hasan, industries adviser Adilur Rahman Khan and national security adviser Khalilur Rahman, were present at the meeting, underlining the political significance the interim government has attached to the case.

The shooting has become a focal point in Bangladesh’s tense political moment, as rival forces jostle to shape the narrative of the July uprising ahead of national elections. For many of Hadi’s supporters, his recovery and the outcome of the investigation will serve as an early test of whether the new leadership can protect dissent and deliver justice in a deeply polarised environment.

mirmostafiz@yahoo.com