The Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Saturday said Bangladesh authorities should now take urgent steps to prevent the ‘mob attacks’ that have taken hold in the country since the Hasina government was ousted last August, and should ensure conditions for ‘free, fair, and participatory’ elections in February.

"The attacks on the offices of Prothom Alo and The Daily Star are an alarming assault on freedom of expression," said Meenakshi Ganguly, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

Ganguly said incitement to violence by some political actors, including on social media, is contributing to an environment in which journalists, political and social activists, and even artists and singers, are deliberately placed in danger.

The attacks followed the killing of an election candidate, Sharif Osman Hadi, who came to prominence during the 2024 student movement that overthrew the previous authoritarian government in 2024, said the New York-based rights body.

Bangladesh is engaged in a fraught struggle to re-establish democracy and respect for human rights after the autocratic rule of Sheikh Hasina, it said.

The interim government has announced elections for February 12, 2026, but political violence and failures to uphold the rule of law severely threaten civic space and risk further rights abuses, said the HRW.

"The assassination of the youth leader Osman Hadi was a terrible act," said Ganguly.