KOLKATA: Indian police said on Sunday they had arrested a Bangladeshi man for allegedly helping two compatriots, accused of murdering a popular student leader in Dhaka, enter India illegally.
Sharif Osman Hadi, an outspoken critic of India who participated in the 2024 mass Bangladesh uprising, was shot by masked assailants in Dhaka on December 12 and later succumbed to his injuries in a Singapore hospital.
West Bengal police named Faisal Karim Masud and Alamgir Hossain as the main suspects in the murder and said they allegedly fled Bangladesh across the Haluaghat border with India soon after Hadi's attack. India arrested the couple on March 8 and they remain in police custody.
On Sunday, West Bengal Special Task Force Superintendent Indrajit Sarkar said AFP that Philip Sangma had been arrested on suspicion of helping Masud and Hossain enter the state of West Bengal through its porous border.
Sangma was “arrested on Saturday for facilitating the illegal entry of the two main suspects in the murder of young Bangladeshi activist (Sharif Osman) Hadi,” Sarkar said, adding that he appeared before a district court on Saturday before being taken into police custody for a week.
Hadi's death sparked violent protests in Bangladesh, with angry mobs setting fire to several buildings, including two major newspapers seen as pro-India, as well as a major cultural institution.
The killing further strained ties between India and Bangladesh, which had been frayed since former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled the pro-democracy uprising and sought refuge in India.
India's foreign ministry has said it rejects “false narratives” about New Delhi's involvement in Hadi's assassination.
In a sign of a possible thaw, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated the Bangladesh Nationalist Party for winning the first parliamentary elections since Hasina's ouster.
