Shillong, Aug 31: The remains of senior Awami League leader, Ishaque Ali Khan Panna, was handed over to Bangladesh authorities in the presence of tight security on both sides of the border, at the Dawki land port of Meghalaya on Saturday, after experiencing a three hours delay attributed to Bangladesh officials who had sought additional documents for identification of the body.
Panna was a former General Secretary of the Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) and a key member of the Awami League and closely associated with former Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina. His decomposed body was recovered on August 26th from an arecanut plantation, barely 1.5 km from the Indo-Bangladesh border, inside East Jaintia Hills.
The autopsy report pointed to asphyxia, indicating murder by suffocation, as the reason for his death. His decomposed body was identified from a Bangladesh passport found on him.
The body had been kept in the morgue of Khliehriat civil hospital in East Jaintia Hills after the post mortem. Delays over transfer of the body back to Bangladesh continued to crop up in the light of the volatile situation in the neighbouring country, which has only just begun to ease.
The body was handed over at approximately 5 AM to a close associate of the murdered Awami League leader, cleared by the Bangladesh High Commission.
Given the sensitivity of the case, the body was taken by road from Khliehriat to Dawki land port in neighbouring West Jaintia Hills district, under tight security.
Though the body arrived at Dawki around 8:30 AM, a delay of three hours took place before the Bangladesh Border Guards and its security agencies were cleared to take possession of the remains.
The delay was reportedly over additional documents sought by the Bangladesh delegation for completing the identification of Panna’s body, given its state of high decomposition.
Once the handing over formalities were completed, the Awami League leader’s body was put into a waiting ambulance on the Bangladesh side of the border to be taken to his native place for the last rites.
In the meantime, security agencies in both India and Bangladesh continue their investigation to unravel the circumstances leading to the murder and the recovery of his body inside Indian territory.
