Javed Iqbal
The targeted killing of a 32-year-old prominent student leader, Osman Hadi, has triggered violent protests across the country. Hadi took part in last year’s movement that successfully ended the 15-year rule of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. As per the circumstantial evidence as described by the Bangladesh government, Faisal Karim Masud, a former leader of the now-banned Bangladesh Chhatra League, has been identified as the main suspect in the Hadi killing. His escape to India reinforces concerns regarding New Delhi’s attempts to block elections and deter youth-led democratic change in Bangladesh.
Since the ouster of former PM Hasina Wajid, India has intensified its moves to spread chaos and anarchy in the country as a form of retribution.
Bangladesh has strongly condemned India’s interference in its internal affairs and sent a clear message that it will not tolerate any further meddling.
The Bangladeshi government has also accused India of involvement in the killing of Bangladeshi citizens along the border.
A Bangladeshi leader, Hasanat Abdullah, has warned India that it will face consequences for its actions, saying, “We will separate India’s northeastern states if it continues to support killers. The Seven Sisters include Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Tripura. Among these, Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, and Mizoram share a land border with Bangladesh, making this region strategically highly sensitive.
In the last year, the student-led revolution in Bangladesh has reclaimed its history of the Two-Nation Theory. Bangladesh, after years of Indian interference, finally emerged as a sovereign state unperturbed by the Hindutva regime’s mechanisation.
Pakistan and Bangladesh are bonded through common faith and ideology and will not allow Hindutva ideology to interfere in their affairs.
Both countries are siblings shaped by history, trauma, and resistance against Hindu domination. Their separation was not the negation of the Two-Nation Theory, but a consequence of the Indian conspiracy, which is now exposed. Bengalese now stand with Pakistan in every thick and thin, while India continues to threaten and destabilise both nations through terror proxies.
Today, Pakistan and Bangladesh face a common threat emerging from the same historical struggle against Hindu majoritarian domination and colonial inheritance.
Despite being separate nation-states, Pakistan and Bangladesh remain connected by civilizational ties, people-to-people connections, and a shared experience of resisting domination. Brotherhood is not measured by borders alone; it is sustained through common struggles and mutual respect.
India’s discomfort with this reality explains its persistent interference in Bangladesh’s internal affairs. A stable, sovereign Bangladesh that asserts an independent foreign policy and reconnects with its Muslim identity challenges India’s baseless constructed narrative that 1971 permanently buried the Two-Nation Theory.
When Bangladesh asserts autonomy, questions Indian intervention in internal affairs, or revisits its historical narrative, it is immediately labelled “unstable” by India, which wants to create chaos.
Attempts to influence Bangladesh’s politics and frame internal dissent as security threats are not acts of concern; they are instruments of control. India seeks to ensure that Bangladesh’s sovereignty remains under Indian influence.
The targeted killing of Osman Hadi laid bare the RAW-backed attackers’ clear warning to young revolutionaries that transformative political participation would come at a high cost. The timing of the killing of a prominent student leader on the announcement of general elections in Bangladesh has raised questions about the fate of elections and the transformation of young revolutionary leadership.
The writer is a freelance columnist and contributes regularly on issues concerning national security.
