From the July uprising to Dhaka-8

Sharif Osman bin Hadi was a political science graduate of the University of Dhaka who first came to wider notice during the protests of 2024. [1] After the uprising he led a new platform, Inqilab Moncho, whose rallies, sit-ins and press conferences pressed for trials over the killings of July 2024 and for a ban on the Awami League. [1, 3] In April 2025 he announced that he would stand for Parliament in Dhaka-8 as an independent, and he was campaigning there when he was shot on 12 December 2025. [2, 1]

This chapter follows that public life in order. It records what he did and said, what Inqilab Moncho demanded, and how supporters, opponents and the press described him. When the page says that Hadi demanded, argued or alleged something, it records his demand, his argument or his allegation; it is not a finding by Justice for Hadi. Descriptions such as “firebrand” or “radical” appear only as the words of those who used them.

Hadi joined the Department of Political Science at the University of Dhaka in the 2010–11 session. [1] One reference profile records that he took part in campus politics and debates there. [4]

His madrasa background, his language and his dress led many to assume that he belonged to Islami Chhatra Shibir, bdnews24.com reported, but his colleagues said that before the July uprising he had not been involved with any political party, and had been active in the cultural sphere instead. [1] Prothom Alo likewise reported that he had not been seen to be affiliated with any political party. [3]

His early life and education →

After the uprising a new platform, Inqilab Moncho, was formed under Hadi’s leadership. [1, 3] Its name is rendered in English as “Platform for Revolution”. [6, 5] Prothom Alo called it a cultural platform; bdnews24.com, a cultural and political one. [3, 1]

Soon after it was formed, according to Prothom Alo, Hadi began organising rallies at Shahbagh demanding “recognition of the memories of the July uprising and its martyrs and injured”, and the proclamation of a July declaration. Invitations to television talk shows followed. [3]

He also became a member of the Jatiya Nagorik Committee. [3, 9] In October 2024 he joined protests in front of Bangabhaban demanding the resignation of President Mohammed Shahabuddin. [3]

Spokesperson and convener

Prothom Alo’s account is that he first spoke for Inqilab Moncho as its spokesperson and later became its convener. [3] Reports at the time use both titles: Prothom Alo called him the platform’s convener in December 2024, [9] reports from January to May 2025 call him its spokesperson, [10, 11, 12, 13] and in December 2025 he was described as each. [5, 1]

Through the first half of 2025 the platform returned to the same few demands. They were addressed to the interim government and, from April 2025, to the political parties as well. [11, 12, 13]

Inqilab Moncho’s politics took place largely in public space: rallies and sit-ins at Shahbagh, marches towards government buildings, and press conferences at the University of Dhaka. Hadi spoke for the platform at each of the events below. [9, 10, 11, 12, 13]

bdnews24.com described Hadi as “a fierce critic of the Awami League”, and named his part in “the movement to ban the Awami League” among the things he was known for. [1]

His demand changed form over the year: the cancellation of the party’s registration in December 2024, [9] a ban for what he called “genocide” in March 2025, [11] and in April 2025 a ban by executive order, through the courts and finally under the constitution. [12]

When the party’s organisational activities were banned in May 2025, he said the decision was ten months late and proposed separate tribunals to try individuals and the party. He also proposed a “repentance commission” for Awami League supporters who, he said, had committed no crime but were being exploited by people who filed cases against them for gain. [13]

On 13 November 2025 he was photographed among demonstrators protesting against a “lockdown” called by the Awami League. [5, 6] When the International Crimes Tribunal sentenced Sheikh Hasina to death, he welcomed the verdict. [1, 8]

Gopalganj

On 16 July 2025, when leaders of the National Citizen Party were attacked in Gopalganj, Hadi reacted in strong language, including obscene words that spread widely on social media, Prothom Alo reported. [3] In a speech bdnews24.com called “blistering”, he demanded that Gopalganj district be dissolved. The remarks caused a storm of controversy, and he later apologised to those who had been hurt by his words. [1]

Prothom Alo reported in December 2025 that Hadi had not been seen to be affiliated with any political party, [3] and he announced his candidacy as an independent. [2] Jacobin read the candidacy as a challenge to “the country’s entrenched political order”. [15]

The National Citizen Party

He was a member of the Jatiya Nagorik Committee, but when most of its members went on to form the National Citizen Party (NCP), he did not join them. [3] Sarjis Alam, one of the NCP’s chief organisers, attended Inqilab Moncho’s rally of 25 April 2025. [14] In November 2025, when an NCP aspirant collected a nomination form for Dhaka-8, Hadi welcomed it, as he welcomed talk that the vice-president of the Dhaka University Central Students’ Union might also stand there. [3]

The BNP

In a speech at the University of Dhaka in July 2025 he warned that if the BNP returned to power but pursued “politics in the old style”, it would “not last even two years” in office. [1]

Others

He took up the cause of Asaduzzaman Fuad, general secretary of the AB Party, after Fuad was harassed in Barishal, and said he would go there to campaign for him. [3] In the 2025 election to the Dhaka University Central Students’ Union, Inqilab Moncho’s Fatima Tasnim Juma was elected on a panel led by Islami Chhatra Shibir. [1]

Sovereignty was written into Inqilab Moncho’s stated objective, which spoke of “standing against all forms of domination to protect independence and sovereignty”. [3]

Reports of his politics return to India. CNA wrote that the platform organised street protests and campaigns “denouncing Hasina and India”. [6] Al Jazeera described Hadi as “an outspoken critic of India, where Bangladesh’s ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled following the uprising last year, and its influence on domestic politics in Bangladesh”. [5] Prothom Alo’s assessment was that he built up a base of supporters “through anti-India rhetoric from this platform”. [3]

The platform itself described its politics as a struggle against “Indian hegemony”. Announcing his death, it wrote: [5]

Indian outlets described him in their own terms: the Financial Express headlined him an “anti-India student leader”, [16] and the Deccan Chronicle wrote of his “anti-Indian stance”. [8]

In December 2024 Inqilab Moncho marched towards the Chief Adviser’s residence and handed its demands to one of his private secretaries, with a deadline of one week. [9]

Prothom Alo reported that he was heard advocating a national government led by the Chief Adviser, Muhammad Yunus. [3] bdnews24.com wrote that he attacked what he saw as the interim government’s weaknesses and its lack of visible change, proposing the formation of a national government instead, and that at various times he also criticised the Bangladesh Army. [1]

In May 2025 he questioned the pace of its decisions: why the ban on the Awami League had taken ten months, and why a second International Crimes Tribunal spoken of in January was promised only in May, once people had taken to the streets. Arguing that the tribunal’s power to try a party had existed in earlier law, he asked which adviser had removed it. [13]

By the end of 2025, Prothom Alo wrote, Hadi had been “a figure of intense discussion throughout the year”. [3] Earlier, in April, Samakal had reported that his many programmes since the uprising had drawn a response among young people. [2]

His language

bdnews24.com wrote of his “fiery rhetoric”. [1] His public language drew on religion: he ended the post announcing his candidacy with “God willing”, [2] and in his post about threats in November 2025 he asked God for more courage and strength, and for “a martyr’s death with a smile”. [17]

Explore his speeches and ideas →

Dhaka-8 covers the Motijheel, Shahjahanpur, Paltan, Ramna and Shahbagh police-station areas of central Dhaka. [1, 3]

Candidate, aspirant or hopeful

Reports describe him in different terms: an “independent candidate”, [2] a “Dhaka-8 hopeful”, [17] and a man “planning to stand” for Parliament. [5] The schedule for the election was announced only the day before he was shot. [3] This page calls him an independent candidate in the sense he used himself, one preparing to contest the election, not a candidate formally nominated.

How he campaigned

He held outreach programmes every Friday in preparation for the campaign, bdnews24.com reported. [1] Prothom Alo described him posting photographs and videos of himself seeking votes at mosques in the early morning, campaigning with puffed rice and sugar candies, and publishing on Facebook the donations he had received from voters and supporters to fund the campaign. He also set up boards across the constituency on which voters could share their expectations and views. [3] On the day he was shot he noted on Facebook that he had no posters or festoons in Dhaka-8. [17]

On 15 November 2025, while campaigning in the AGB Colony area of Motijheel, he alleged that dirty water had been thrown at him. In a Facebook video he said it had happened three times, and told his opponents they could throw more if they wished. [3]

The threats he reported

Late on 13 November 2025 Hadi wrote on Facebook that in the previous three hours he had received at least 30 calls and messages threatening to kill him and to harm his family. He blamed the Awami League. [17] Prothom Alo reported that he said its supporters were keeping him under constant surveillance. [3] This page records his account and his attribution as his own statements; it does not establish who sent the threats.