Shillong, Aug 31: The body of murdered Bangladesh Awami League leader, Ishaque Ali Khan Panna, found inside Jaintia Hills, is being handed over to Bangladesh authorities at the Indo-Bangla border, Saturday.
The body will be taken from the Khliehriat civil hospital morgue to the border at approximately 5 AM.
The state government has been coordinating with the Bangladesh High Commission, on the directions of the Ministry of External Affairs and Home Affairs, to ensure the mortal remains are returned to his country.
The body was initially to be handed over on Friday itself, but due to time constraints, it was delayed to Saturday morning.
Earlier, a family member of the Awami League leader arrived in Meghalaya to complete all necessary paperworks for the transfer of the body to his home at Pirojpur district in Bangladesh.
He identified the body of Panna at the Khliehristand civil hospital morgue.
Officials said the body would be taken by road to the Dawki land port and, from there, the Border Security Force (BSF) and the Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) will coordinate to ensure a smooth handover.
Mystery has surrounded the death of the Awami League leader since the first reports of his death surfaced, almost a week ago.
The Bangladesh media was the first to report his death inside India, on the Meghalaya side.
But the BSF had denied the same and even went to the extend to claim Panna was shot or murdered by a mob deep inside Bangladesh territory.
The recovery of his decomposed body inside a betel nut plantation in the village of Dona Bhoi in East Jaintia Hills on August 26, not far from the international border with Bangladesh, led conspiracy angles to surface.
A post mortem report from Khliehriat Civil hospital mention asphyxia as reason behind his death.
Meghalaya Deputy Chief Minister in-charge Home, Prestone Tynsong, confirmed post-mortem reports mentioning that the victim was murdered.
“There are possibilities of the Bangladeshi leader’s body being dumped into Indian Territory,” Tynsong said. He also added that the incident happened despite imposition of night curfew along the India-Bangladesh border in view of the current turmoil in Bangladesh and to prevent infiltration.
