Amidst reports of shrill anti-India rhetoric in Bangladesh met with equally aggressive responses from India, a few reasonable voices have surfaced on Bangladesh’s television and social media platforms. Some of these—prominent journalists, retired bureaucrats—have openly blamed sections within Bangladesh’s interim government for failing to contain mob violence following the attack on Sharif Osman Hadi on 12 December 2025. It is these same sections, they say, who are stoking anti-India sentiments.  

After Hadi’s death in a Singapore hospital on 18 December, violence eruoted in Dhaka, Chittagong and other cities. Protesters ransacked and set fire to offices of Prothom Alo and Daily Star. Even organisations like Chhayanot and Udichi, which house Bangladesh’s cultural and heritage assets, were not spared. The unrest claimed more victims. The unrest claimed more victims. On 22 December, Motaleb Shikdar, a student leader associated with the July uprising against Sheikh Hasina, was shot in Khulna.

The rise in anti-India sentiment had another tragic consequence. On 18 December, one Dipu Chandra Das was lynched in Dhaka. Though investigations later revealed this was the result of personal grudges involving his co-workers, the........

© National Herald