“I can’t breathe any more. There’s too much smoke. I’m inside. You are killing me.” That was the message Zyma Islam, an investigative reporter for Bangladesh’s The Daily Star, posted on Facebook shortly after midnight on December 18, 2025, as a mob set fire to the newspaper’s Dhaka offices.
Islam and 27 of her colleagues were forced to the roof of the building to escape the blaze, which followed the death of Sharif Osman Hadi, a youth leader who had been instrumental in ousting former prime minister Sheikh Hasina in August. Hadi died in a Singapore hospital the previous week after being shot by masked attackers outside a Dhaka mosque.
The Daily Star, Bangladesh’s largest English-language newspaper, had been preparing to publish its lead story on Hadi’s death when the attack began. Simultaneously, another mob targeted the offices of Prothom Alo, Bangladesh’s leading Bengali-language daily. Protesters accused both newspapers of laying the groundwork for Hadi’s assassination, an allegation that remains unsubstantiated but gained traction in a highly charged political environment.
Threats against the newspapers had been escalating since Hadi’s murder, with social media posts labeling them “Indian agents” and accusing them of minimizing the significance of the assassination. These accusations were amplified by Hadi’s own anti-India rhetoric. Prior to the arson, protests had already taken place outside the newspapers’ offices.
According to reports, Islam and her colleagues spent four hours on the roof before being rescued. The attacks on The Daily Star and Prothom Alo were coordinated, and also targeted the cultural institution Chhayanaut. The following day, the central office of Udichi Shilpigosthi, another cultural organization, was also attacked and burned.
An analysis conducted by The Daily Star and Dismislab, a fact-checking organization, revealed that the attacks were not spontaneous. The investigation, which examined 3,064 Facebook posts circulating before, during, and after the attacks, found evidence of a sustained online incitement campaign. The analysis indicated that threats had been building for hours, days, and even months, yet monitoring systems and harmful-content moderation protocols failed to prevent the escalation to violence.
The interim government and Meta, the parent company of Facebook, did not take action on the long-running online incitement, according to the Star-Dismislab analysis. The newspapers briefly suspended publication following the attacks, but resumed printing shortly after.
As of February 26, 2026, no arrests have been publicly announced in connection with the attacks. The Daily Star has continued to report on the investigation and the broader implications for press freedom in Bangladesh.
