Who is Muhammad Motaleb Sikdar, the other Bangladeshi student leader shot?

Days after the killing of July uprising leader Sharif Osman Hadi, another Bangladesh student leader Muhammad Motaleb Sikdar was shot in the head on Monday.

The Kaler Kantha newspaper, quoting hospital sources, said Sarkar was shot on the left side of his head, and he was bleeding profusely when he was brought to the facility, where the doctors started emergency treatment.

Who is Muhammad Motaleb Sikdar?

Sikdar came into the limelight after the violent student-led 2024 uprising in the country's southwestern Khulna city against the Sheikh Hasina government.

According to a Times of India report, Sikdar is a resident of Sheikhpara Palli in Bangladesh's Sonadanga. The 42-year-old leader is the National Citizen Party (NCP)'s Khulna divisional chief and a central organiser of the party's workers' wing, NCP Sramik Shakti.

"The Khulna Division head of NCP (National Citizen Party) and central coordinator of the party’s workers front, Muhammad Motaleb Sikdar, was shot a few minutes ago," NCP’s joint principal coordinator Mahmuda Mitu had informed in a Facebook post.

According to Bangladeshi media reports he was targetted while making preparations for a party rally.

The Daily Star reported, "Miscreants opened fire at Motaleb, targeting his head around 11.45 am near Gazi Medical College Hospital in the city." Sikdar is now out of danger, doctors have said.

The attack came days after Hadi, a prominent leader of the student-led protests last year that led to the ouster of the prime minister Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League government, was shot in the head on December 12 by masked gunmen at an election campaign in central Dhaka’s Bijoynagar area.

The 32-year-old Inqilab Mancha spokesperson died while undergoing treatment in Singapore on Thursday. Hadi was a candidate for the scheduled February 12 general elections.

Interim government of Muhammad Yunus staged a nationwide mourning for Hadi’s death on Saturday and said no stone would be left unturned to track down his killers as violence erupted in Dhaka and other major cities afresh over the attack and subsequent death.