• NCP chief says final list of candidates to be announced on Monday.
• Tasnim Jara, several other leaders quit NCP in protest.
• Critics of NCP’s move say it undermined party’s founding ideals.
  

DHAKA: The student-led Bangladeshi party born out of the protest movement that toppled Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has forged an electoral alliance with Jamaat-e-Islami ahead of February’s parliamentary election, stirring internal rifts.

Since last year’s uprising, the National Citizen Party (NCP) has cast itself as a centrist, reformist alternative to nepotism and two-party dominance, but as the election nears, it is struggling to turn street power into voter support.

NCP chief Nahid Islam said on Sunday the party had decided to enter into the alliance for greater unity, adding that the final list of candidates would be announced on Monday. Other NCP figures have described the alliance as a pragmatic step in a fragmented political landscape.

But the decision to join forces with JI has already prompted internal ructions.

Tasnim Jara, a doctor who left a career in Britain to join the NCP, becoming a leader in the party, resigned on Saturday and said she would contest the election as an independent candidate. Several other members have also quit.

BNP regains momentum 

Critics of the NCP’s move said it undermined the party’s founding ideals.

“The moral support I had for the NCP will no longer exist due to this ideological mismatch,” said one university student, asking not to be named.

The partnership comes amid broader political realignments, with the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) — aligned with ailing former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia and effectively led by her son, acting chair Tarique Rahman — regaining momentum following Rahman’s return after nearly 17 years in exile.

The February 12 election will be held under an interim administration headed by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, who took charge after Hasina’s ouster and is seen as crucial to restoring political stability after nearly two years of turmoil.

• Police identify suspects in Sharif Osman Hadi murder case.
• Bangladesh seeks cooperation from India over Hadi killing.
• Protests intensify in Bangladesh after student leader’s death.
  

DHAKA: Bangladesh police on Sunday said the alleged killers of popular student leader Sharif Osman Hadi had fled to India, in comments likely to further strain relations with its neighbour.

Hadi, a vocal Indian critic who took part in last year’s mass uprising, was shot by masked assailants in Dhaka earlier this month and later succumbed to his injuries at a hospital in Singapore.

His death set off violent protests with angry mobs torching several buildings, including two major newspapers deemed to favour India, as well as a prominent cultural institution.

With protests being held across the country almost daily, pressure has been growing on Bangladesh’s interim government to arrest the killers of Hadi, who was set to contest the general elections in February next year.

“The killing was premeditated. Those behind it have been identified,” SN Nazrul Islam, a senior Dhaka Metropolitan Police officer, said at a news conference.

Suspects Faisal Karim Masud and Alamgir Sheikh left Bangladesh through the Haluaghat border with India shortly after attacking Hadi on December 12, Islam said.

They were received at the border by two Indian citizens, who escorted them into the northeastern state of Meghalaya before handing them over to two accomplices.

Bangladeshi investigators were in contact with their Indian counterparts who had arrested the two suspected accomplices, Islam said.

“We are communicating with Meghalaya police, who have confirmed the arrest of two Indian nationals,” he added.

Two senior Meghalaya police officers, however, did not comment when contacted by AFP.

The Indian foreign ministry had earlier said it rejects “false narratives” about New Delhi´s involvement in Hadi´s killing.

Ties between the neighbours have deteriorated since the ousted prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, fled the pro-democracy uprising and sought refuge in India.

India says it is still considering Dhaka’s requests to extradite Hasina, who was sentenced to death in absentia for orchestrating a deadly crackdown on the uprising.

The lynching of a Hindu garment worker by a mob on December 18 has also hit ties.

Amid the deteriorating security situation in the Muslim-majority country, Khuda Baksh Chowdhury, special assistant to interim leader Muhammad Yunus, overseeing the home department, stepped down on Wednesday.

• Hindu groups’ protest met with pro-Khalistan activists.
• Police addresses scuffle, intervenes and restores order.
• India persecuting Sikhs, Muslims, Christians: Sikh leader.

LONDON: Tensions flared outside the Bangladesh Embassy as a confrontation broke out between Pro-Khalistan Sikh activists from Sikhs For Justice (SFJ) and a group of British Indian Hindu groups aligned with India’s ruling Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) during a demonstration related to the alleged killings of Hindus in Bangladesh.

The protest, which sought to stand in solidarity with minorities, was met with anti-India slogans from the Khalistani group, which also raised Khalistani flags.

Veteran Khalistani activist Paramjeet Singh Pamma, a coordinator of the Khalistan Referendum campaign, confronted the Hindu protest group gathered outside the embassy premises. 

A scuffle occurred between Pamma and the BJP’s Hindutva supporters, prompting swift intervention by Metropolitan Police officers stationed at the scene who separated the two groups and restored order.

Pro-Khalistan Sikh activists formed a protective presence around the embassy building. Demonstrators raised slogans accusing the Indian government of responsibility for deaths linked to Sikh activists, including chants of, “who Killed Hadi — Modi”, and “who killed [Hardeep Singh] Nijjar — Modi, Modi, India”.

Pamma is designated by India as a “most wanted terrorist,” a label applied by Indian security agencies to several Khalistan-linked figures. However, the legal status of Pamma in the UK differs from India’s position.

Expressing his views on Indian allegations, the Sikh leader said, “I reside openly in the United Kingdom; no UK court has convicted me of terrorism-related offences; no extradition request by India has resulted in my removal, and UK authorities have not legally upheld India’s allegations against me.

“We gathered here today to expose India’s dirty face. India is involved in persecuting Sikhs, Muslims and Christians at home; it cannot blame Bangladesh for human rights violations. We are focused on the next phase of the Khalistan Referendum, which will reveal the full scale of atrocities committed by India against the Sikhs,” remarked Pamma.

The clash comes as ties between New Delhi and Dhaka have been strained since the ouster of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who currently resides in India. The bilateral relations further took a dive following the killing of Bangladesh student leader Sharif Osman Hadi and the lynching of a Hindu worker in Bangladeshi capital.