UNIDENTIFIED gunmen on Monday shot in the head Motaleb Shikder, a second leader of Bangladesh’s violent student-led 2024 uprising. The attack took place in southwest ern Khulna city, days after the killing of prominent youth leader Sharif Osman Hadi. “The Khulna Division head of NCP (National Citizen Party) and central coordinator of the party’s workers front, Motaleb Shikder, was shot a few minutes ago,” NCP’s joint principal coor dinator Mahmuda Mitu said in a Facebook post. Mitu, a doctor, said Shikder was rushed to Khulna Medical College Hospital in a critical condition.

 

The Kaler Kantha newspa per, quoting hospital sources, said Shikder was shot on the left side of his head, and he was bleeding profusely when he was brought to the facility, where the doctors started emergency treatment. The attack came days after Hadi, a prominent leader of the student-led protests last year that led to the ouster of the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina-led Awami Motaleb Shikder Assam on high alert: Himanta GUWAHATI, Dec 22 (PTI) ASSAM is on “high alert” in the wake of the fresh wave of unrest in neighbouring Bangladesh, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Monday.

 

Sarma, speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a programme here, said the State Government was closely monitoring the developments in Bangladesh. League Government, was shot in the head on December 12 by masked gunmen at an election cam paign in central Dhaka’s Bijoynagar area. The 32-year-old Inqilab Mancha spokesperson died while undergoing treatment in Singapore on Thursday. (Contd on page 5) ‘We have seen that in Bangladesh, Hindus are being subjected to atrocities and burnt alive... Those who are current ly in power in Bangladesh have been talking about including northeast India in their country,’ the CM claimed.

 

It is also well known that people from Bangladesh entered Assam at different times and the State is “full of these peo ple”, he asserted. ‘We have to be vigilant and must keep a sharp eye on the developments in that country,’ Sarma said. Sarma had claimed last week that “Bangladeshi elements” have been repeatedly saying that northeast India should be merged with the neighbouring country, which is ‘irresponsible and dangerous’, and India will not remain silent on this. ‘India is a very big country, a nuclear nation and the fourth largest economy of the world. How can Bangladesh even think about it?’ the Chief Minister had said.