Arsonists target Bangladesh newspapers after student leader's death

Firefighters pulled journalists from their burning newsroom on Friday after the building was set ablaze during violent demonstrations in Bangladesh's capital.

Thousands of protesters were brought to the streets by the assassination of a youth leader running for parliament in upcoming national elections.

A key figure in last year's uprising, Sharif Osman Hadi, 32, was shot by masked gunmen while leaving a mosque in Dhaka last week.

After he died in hospital on Thursday, his supporters gathered in Dhaka demanding the killers be brought to justice.

Several buildings, including those housing leading newspapers Prothom Alo and the Daily Star, were set on fire and vandalised, according to authorities.

Staff trapped in the Daily Star newsroom described being unable to escape as the building filled with smoke.

"I can't breathe anymore. There's too much smoke. I am inside. You are killing me," reporter Zyma Islam wrote on her Facebook page.

Firefighters managed to bring the blaze under control at 1:40 am (1940 GMT on Thursday), with 27 employees rescued from the smouldering building.

"For the first time in the newspaper's history, the publication had to be halted," consulting editor Kamal Ahmed told AFP.

At the Prothom Alo, executive editor Sajjad Sharif said he was "deeply saddened" that the newspaper could not be published due to vandalism and arson.

"This attack is not merely an attack on Prothom Alo and the Daily Star, it's an attack on freedom of the press, expression, dissent and diversity of opinion," he said.

Critics of the papers, the largest in the South Asian country, accuse them of favouring neighbouring India, where Bangladesh's ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina has taken refuge since quitting in 2024.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said it was alarmed by the violence against the press.

"CPJ is monitoring the situation and urges Bangladeshi authorities to ensure the safety of news outlets and journalists, and to hold those responsible accountable," it said in a statement.

Hadi, a leader of the student protest group Inqilab Mancha, was also an outspoken critic of India.

After he was shot in Dhaka on December 12, he was airlifted to Singapore, where authorities later announced he had succumbed to his wounds.

Inqilab Mancha distanced itself from the violence that erupted at the Dhaka protests, blaming opportunists for trying to derail the demonstrations.

"They essentially want to turn Bangladesh into a dysfunctional state through vandalism and arson," the group said in a statement posted to social media.

"They want to endanger the independence and sovereignty of this country."

Bangladeshi police have launched a manhunt for Hadi's shooters, releasing photographs of two key suspects and offering a reward of five million taka (about $42,000) for information leading to their arrest.