GUWAHATI

“The police in Meghalaya’s East Jaintia Hills district found the decomposed body of an Awami League leader from Bangladesh on August 26,” officials confirmed on Wednesday (August 28, 2024) evening.

The body was located in a betel nut plantation in the Dona Bhoi area about 1.5 km inside the India-Bangladesh border. The area is under the Umkiang police station.

The district’s Superintendent of Police, Giri Prasad told journalists in the district that Ishaq Ali Khan Panna was identified from a passport found on his body. “The body was taken to the Khliehriat (district headquarters) Civil Hospital for an autopsy and further investigation,” he said.

A former general secretary of the Bangladesh Chhatra League, Mr. Panna was a senior leader of the Awami League in Bangladesh’s Pirojpur district. The 60-year-old was in hiding after the Sheikh Hasina government fell on August 5.

Reports in Bangladesh media said he and a few others attempted to cross into Meghalaya through the Tamabil area of the Sylhet district on August 24 and reached a hill at 6 a.m.

He reportedly experienced breathing problems, collapsed and died. Some Dhaka-based publications said he may have died after being chased by the Border Security Force (BSF) personnel. The BSF trashed these reports, terming them as false and fabricated.

“The BSF Meghalaya Frontier strongly refutes the misleading reports circulated by esteemed media houses concerning the death of former Awami League leader Ishak Ali Khan Panna in Indian territory in the Sylhet-bordering area. Recently no infiltration/illegal entry of Bangladeshi nationals was reported in the area of responsibility of the Meghalaya Frontier of BSF along the Indo-BD (Bangladesh) border. The story being circulated is entirely fabricated, and BSF has no involvement in the unfortunate demise of Panna,” a statement issued by BSF spokesperson Trideep Sangma said on August 26.

The office of the Assistant High Commissioner of Bangladesh in Guwahati did not take calls. A report in the Dhaka Tribune said Mr. Panna’s brother Zafar Ali Khan has applied to Bangladesh’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to repatriate his body from India.