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 knew the identities of those behind the murder of the activist whose killing sparked widespread unrest, but said 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 Sharif Osman bin Hadi, spokesperson of Bangladesh’s Inquilab Mancha.
She made the comments at a Kolkata sit-in on Tuesday, marking Mamata’s first major political appearance since her party’s defeat in the West Bengal assembly election, according to a video clip aired by a multi-media outlet.
Addressing supporters at the demonstration, Mamata said that members of the West Bengal Police’s Special Task Force had arrested individuals connected to the murder of the Bangladesh activist after they entered the state through Meghalaya border.
Without naming the victim, she said the killing had triggered significant public reactions in Bangladesh.
According to Mamata, the STF deserved credit for making the arrests, but she later received a phone call from Amit Shah.
She said he personally called me 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 questioning, ‘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 that 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 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 that they allegedly fled Bangladesh through Haluaghat border with Meghalaya state of India shortly after Hadi attack. India arrested the pair on March 8 and they remain in police custody.
STF officials told 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, a vocal India critic who took part in Bangladesh’s 2024 mass uprising, was shot by masked assailants in Dhaka on December 12, 2025 and succumbed to his injuries at a hospital in Singapore after six days.
Hadi was shot in the head in Dhaka on December 12 while conducting his electioneering as an aspiring independent candidate for the Dhaka-8 constituency.
