The original content of Democracy Now! Headlines appears under the Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 License (United States). For more, including their other shows and media, visit www.democracynow.org. December 19, 2025 Protests Erupt in Bangladesh After Student Leader Is Murdered by Masked Assailants ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Protests have erupted across Bangladesh after the death of prominent youth activist Sharif Osman Hadi, a leader in last year's uprising that ousted Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Police and paramilitary forces have been deployed to the capital Dhaka and other cities, as hundreds of people took to the streets overnight Thursday. Last week, Hadi, an outspoken critic of India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was shot in the head by masked assailants as he launched his campaign for the first elections since the 2024 ouster of Sheikh Hasina, who remains in self-imposed exile in India and was sentenced to death for crimes against humanity last month. Sharif Osman Hadi died of his wounds Thursday at a hospital in Singapore. .