GUWAHATI
“Police in Meghalaya’s East Jaintia Hills district found the decomposed body of a Bangladesh Awami League leader on August 26,” officials confirmed on Wednesday evening (August 28, 2024).
The body was found at a betel nut plantation in Dona Bhoi area, about 1.5 km inside the India-Bangladesh border. The area is under Umkiang Police Station.
District 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 Khliehriat (district headquarters) Civil Hospital for autopsy and further examination,” he said.
Mr. Panna, former general secretary of the Chhatra League of Bangladesh, was a senior leader of the Awami League in Pirojpur district of Bangladesh. The 60-year-old went into hiding after Sheikh Hasina’s government fell on August 5.
According to media reports in Bangladesh, on August 24, he and a few others tried to enter Meghalaya through the Tamabil area of Sylhet district and reached a hill at 6 am.
He reportedly had breathing problems, collapsed and died. According to some publications in Dhaka, he may have died after being chased by Border Security Force (BSF) personnel. The BSF quashed these reports calling them false and fabricated.
“The BSF Meghalaya Frontier strongly refutes the misleading reports being spread by esteemed media houses about the death of former Awami League leader Ishak Ali Khan Panna on Indian territory in the area bordering Sylhet. Recently, no infiltration/illegal entry of Bangladeshi nationals was reported in BSF’s Meghalaya Frontier area of responsibility along the Indo-Bangladesh (Bangladesh) border. The story being circulated is completely fabricated and BSF is not involved in the unfortunate demise of Panna,” said a statement issued by BSF spokesperson Trideep Sangma on August 26.
The Bangladesh Assistant High Commissioner’s office in Guwahati did not accept calls. A report in the Dhaka Tribune said Mr Panna’s brother Zafar Ali Khan has submitted an application to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bangladesh to repatriate his body from India.
