A senior labour wing leader of the National Citizens Party (NCP) was shot in Khulna on Monday morning, police and party officials said.
The victim, Md Motaleb Shikdar (42), a central leader of the NCP-affiliated
labour organisation Jatiya Sramik Shakti aka National Citizens Party (NCP), was shot at around 11:45 am (local time) at a house in the Sonadanga area of Khulna city.
Saif Newaz, an organiser of the NCP’s Khulna metropolitan unit, told Prothom Alo, who first reported the development, that Shikdar serves as the central organiser of the party’s labour wing and the Khulna divisional convener. He said Shikdar had been actively working to organise a divisional labour rally in Khulna scheduled to be held in the coming days.
“NCP Khulna divisional chief and central organiser of NCP’s labour wing, Shramik Shakti, Motaleb Shikdar, was shot a short while ago. He has been taken to Khulna Medical in critical condition,” the party’s joint member secretary, Dr Mahmuda Mitu, wrote on Facebook, while sharing a photo of the wounded leader. News18 could not independently verify the authenticity of the photograph.
Sonadanga police station’s inspector (investigation) Animesh Mondal confirmed the incident while speaking to the newspaper, saying Shikdar was shot by unidentified assailants inside a house located behind Gazi Medical College Hospital in the Sonadanga area.
After the shooting, local residents rushed Shikdar to Khulna Medical College Hospital. He was later shifted to a private diagnostic centre for a CT scan of his head, police said.
The shooting of Shikdar comes four days after Osman Hadi was shot dead by unidentified assailants in Dhaka on Thursday. Hadi was known as a vocal critic of India and former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, and was considered a key figure associated with the so-called July 2024 uprising.
In the aftermath of Hadi’s killing, Bangladesh has slipped into a period of heightened turmoil, with mobs targeting media houses such as The Daily Star and Prothom Alo, as well as cultural centres including Chhayanaut (ছায়ানট) and Udichi (উদীচী). Attacks on minorities have also increased, with the lynching of Hindu Bengali garment worker Dipu Chandra Das drawing international attention.
