Bangladesh is in the grips of chaos. And there’s one man allegedly to blame — Faisal Karim Masud. Authorities have named Masud as the main accused in the killing of youth leader Sharif Osman Hadi and issued a nationwide lookout notice as well as a travel ban on him.
At a meeting held on Sunday (December 21), representatives from police headquarters, the Dhaka Metropolitan Detective Police (DMP), Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), and Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) said they are making “maximum efforts” to apprehend Masud.
However, they had no “specific information” on the whereabouts of the prime suspect. “We do not have specific information about Faisal’s last location. Our forces and intelligence agencies are working to obtain it,” said Bangladesh’s Additional Inspector General of Police (IGP) Khandaker Rafiqul Islam, adding that there was no reliable information suggesting the suspect had left the country.
As authorities continue to hunt for Masud, we take a closer look at who he is and how he’s allegedly involved in the shooting that has pushed Bangladesh into further turmoil.
Who is Faisal Karim Masud?
After spokesperson of Inqilab Moncho, Sharif Osman Hadi, was shot at on December 12, and
subsequently died on December 18 in Singapore, where he was flown for treatment, investigations have centred on Faisal Karim Masud, with one Bangladeshi journalist telling The Telegraph that “Faisal joined Hadi’s campaign with the intention of killing him.”
Investigations reveal that Masud is a former leader of the Chhatra League, the now-banned student wing of the ousted Awami League, the political party of former Prime Minister
Sheikh Hasina.
Moreover, a LinkedIn profile that reportedly belongs to him reveals that he lists himself as the owner of three companies: Apple Soft IT, YCU Technology, and Enlist Work.
The LinkedIn profile also states that Masud completed a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from a private university in Dhaka in 2013. It also mentions that he later earned an MBA from another private university.
According to a Prothom Alo report citing a source, Masud was on the ground alongside leaders and activists of the Awami League and its allied organisations to suppress the protesters during the July 2024 mass uprising.
Investigations also reveal that Masud was previously arrested in connection with an armed robbery at a Dhaka school in which 1.7 million taka was stolen. However, he was released later — a detail which has sparked anger and raised questions.
How is Faisal Masud ‘connected’ to Hadi’s death?
Law enforcement authorities in Bangladesh have named Masud as the man who fired at Osman Hadi while the latter was campaigning in Dhaka’s Bijoynagar area. For those unaware,
Hadi was a prominent leader of Bangladesh’s 2024 student-led uprising. He acted as a spokesperson for Inquilab Mancha, or “Platform for Revolution”, and was planning to stand as a member of parliament for the Dhaka-8 constituency in the Bijoynagar area of the city in the upcoming elections, expected in February 2026.
Hadi was also an outspoken critic of India, where Bangladesh’s ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled following the uprising last year.
Visuals show that on December 12, Hadi was shot in the head by two assailants on a motorcycle, which pulled up beside the battery-powered auto-rickshaw he was travelling in. He was rushed to Dhaka Medical College Hospital. Later, he was moved to Singapore General Hospital’s neurosurgical Intensive Care Unit (ICU) on December 15 for treatment. “Despite the best efforts of the doctors … Hadi succumbed to his injuries,” Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement last Thursday.
According to authorities, a night before the shooting, Masud reportedly told his girlfriend that something was going to happen that would “shake entire Bangladesh”. “Something will happen tomorrow (on Friday), that the whole country will tremble,” newspaper _Daily Juganto_r quoted Masud as saying.
Where is Masud hiding?
Bangladeshi authorities have launched a manhunt for Masud following the incident. Moreover, the police is also offering a reward of five million taka for information leading to his arrest. As of now, the police has arrested several people believed to be connected to Hadi’s murder. This includes Masud’s family members — his father, Md Humayun Kabir, mother, Hasi Begum, 60, as well as his wife Saheda Parvin Samia, and brother-in-law Wahid Ahmed Sipu.
On Sunday, addressing an emergency press conference, Bangladesh’s Additional Inspector General of Police Khandaker Rafiqul Islam said law enforcement and intelligence agencies are actively trying to trace Masud’s whereabouts. “We do not have specific information about his last location, but there is no confirmation that he has fled abroad,” he said, adding that no concrete evidence has yet emerged linking any political party to the murder.
The remarks came amid speculation that Masud had fled to India after a photo went viral on social media claiming he had fled to the neighbouring nation. Responding on the same, DMP additional commissioner (detective) Shafiqul Islam said they had also seen the photo, but it could not be confirmed that it was taken in India.
However, according to a report by the Dhaka Tribune, Bangladesh’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned India’s High Commissioner to Dhaka, Pranay Verma. The report stated that Dhaka urged that if those responsible for the attack on Hadi enter India, they should be arrested and returned.
Meanwhile, after news broke of Hadi’s death,
violent protests broke out in parts of Bangladesh with chants of ‘we want justice’ ringing out loud and clear. In fact, protesters went on to vandalise both the Bengali-language national daily Prothom Alo and the English-language newspaper The Daily Star. A Hindu man, Dipu Chandra Das, was also lynched in Mymensingh on Thursday night.
This prompted Bangladesh’s interim government leader Muhammad Yunus to issue a message to all citizens to “resist all forms of mob violence committed by a few fringe elements”. His office issued a statement saying: “We strongly and unequivocally condemn all acts of violence, intimidation, arson, and property destruction.”
With inputs from agencies
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