Mamata alleges pressure from Amit Shah to suppress names of Hadi's killers

Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday alleged that Indian home minister Amit Shah asked her to keep quiet about the arrest of suspects linked to the killing of a Bangladeshi activist.

She also claimed that she knows the identities of those behind the murder of the activist, whose killing sparked widespread unrest, but stated she would not reveal their names because doing so could trigger turmoil in Bangladesh.

Although she did not identify the victim by name, her comments appeared to refer to the killing of Sharif Osman bin Hadi, spokesperson of Bangladesh’s Inquilab Mancha.

She made the remarks at a sit-in in Kolkata on Tuesday, marking Banerjee’s first major political appearance since her party’s defeat in the West Bengal assembly election, according to a video clip aired by an Indian media outlet.

Addressing supporters at the demonstration, Mamata said members of the West Bengal Police’s Special Task Force had arrested individuals connected to the murder of the Bangladeshi activist after they entered the state through the Meghalaya border.

Without naming the victim, she said the killing had triggered a significant public reaction in Bangladesh.

According to Banerjee, the STF deserved credit for making the arrests, but she later received a phone call from Amit Shah. She said he personally called her and asked that the matter not be disclosed publicly because it concerned the country.

‘Home minister Amit Shah himself called me and told me to inform the state police that this should not go outside because it is a matter of the country,’ she said.

Mamata went on to question, ‘Who had the murder carried out? Whose names had come out? Even though the government has changed today, I know everything. My heart is a storehouse of words. A storehouse of information,’ she said.

‘I know everything that came out,’ she said, adding that she had remained silent until now but felt compelled to speak because of what she described as growing political persecution by the federal government.

The former chief minister said she would not reveal further details or identify those she referred to, claiming that doing so could trigger unrest in Bangladesh.

In March this year, Indian police told the media that they had arrested a Bangladeshi man for allegedly helping two fellow nationals, accused of murdering Sharif Osman Hadi in Dhaka, enter India illegally.

West Bengal police named Faisal Karim Masud and Alamgir Hossain as the prime suspects in the killing and said they allegedly fled Bangladesh through the Haluaghat border into Meghalaya state shortly after the attack on Hadi. India arrested the pair on 8 March, and they remain in police custody.

An STF official told the media that Philip Sangma had been arrested on suspicion of helping Masud and Alamgir enter the state of West Bengal through its porous border.

Hadi was shot in the head in Dhaka on December 12, 2025 while conducting his electioneering as an aspiring independent candidate for the Dhaka-8 constituency.