Sharif Osman Bin Hadi, a leader of Bangladesh’s 2024 student-led uprising who was flown to Singapore for treatment after being wounded in an assassination attempt, has died, Singapore officials said.

“Despite the best efforts of the doctors … Hadi succumbed to his injuries,” Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Thursday.

According to a report by Bangladeshi daily Dhaka Tribune, Hadi, who was being considered as a potential candidate for the Dhaka-8 constituency in the country’s national elections next February, was shot in the head on December 12 in the capital, Dhaka, while travelling in a battery-powered auto-rickshaw.

The attacker shot him from a motorcycle, and Hadi was rushed to Dhaka Medical College Hospital for treatment.

Local physicians told the Dhaka Tribune that his brain stem was damaged and he was evacuated from Bangladesh to the Singapore General Hospital (SGH) neurosurgical intensive care unit on December 15 for further treatment.

Hadi, 32, was a senior leader of the student protest group Inqilab Mancha and has been an outspoken critic of India, an old ally of former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and where the ousted leader remains in self-imposed exile.

Announcing his death on Facebook late on Thursday, Inqilab Mancha said: “In the struggle against Indian hegemony, Allah has accepted the great revolutionary Osman Hadi as a martyr.”

Condolences have also poured in from leaders and political groups across the country.

The country’s interim government head, Muhammad Yunus, expressed his condolences and said his death “is an irreparable loss for the nation”.

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“The country’s march towards democracy cannot be halted through fear, terror, or bloodshed,” he said in a televised speech on Thursday.

The government also announced special prayers at mosques after Friday prayers and a half-day mourning on Saturday.

“We are deeply saddened by the death of Sharif Osman Hadi, spokesperson of Inqilab Manch and independent candidate for Dhaka-8 constituency,” the acting chairman of the Bangladesh National Party (BNP), Tareq Rahman, said on Facebook.

In a press statement to local media reports, the National Citizen Party (NCP) said it was “deeply saddened” by Hadi’s death and expressed condolences to his family.

Police have launched a manhunt for the attackers who shot Hadi, releasing photographs of two key suspects and offering a reward of 5 million taka (about $42,000) for information leading to their arrest.

According to a report by Bangladeshi newspaper The Daily Star, the country’s police and border guards have arrested at least 20 people linked to the incident so far, but investigations into the murder are ongoing.

Yunus, the 85-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner leading Bangladesh until the February 12 elections, said last Saturday that Hadi’s shooting was a premeditated attack carried out by a powerful network, without providing a name.

He said “the objective of the conspirators is to derail the election”, and added that the attack was “symbolic – meant to demonstrate their strength and sabotage the entire electoral process”.