Former general secretary of Bangladesh Chhatra League and Pirojpur district Awami League member, Ishaq Ali Khan Panna, has reportedly been killed by the Border Security Force (BSF) while trying to flee to India.
He died late at night on Friday while climbing Shillong Hill in Meghalaya after entering India. A picture that has spread on social media shows a pool of blood next to his body. There are also blood stains visible on his leg. However, there are no visible gunshot wounds or marks on his exposed body parts (chest, face, and limbs).
According to eyewitnesses, Ishaq Ali Khan Panna died from BSF gunfire.
Family members have stated that they are investigating whether he died while entering India or in some other way.
Following the news of Panna’s death, his friends and political colleagues have been expressing their condolences on Facebook since Saturday afternoon.
Panna had a close relationship with Jasim Uddin Khan, his elder brother’s brother-in-law. Jasim mentioned that he had spoken to Panna on the phone three days ago. Panna had visited his home in Pirojpur town on July 25 and left two days later.
According to information provided by Jasim, they learned from various sources that Panna entered India through the Tamabil border in Sylhet. He died across the border, but they are not sure whether it was due to gunfire or a stroke. They have learned that his body is at a police station on the Indian side of the border. Panna’s nephew and the chairman of Chirapara Saturia Union Parishad in Kaukhali, Layekuzzaman Mintu, also confirmed this information.
According to another source, Aminul Islam Amin, the recently deposed Relief and Social Welfare Secretary of the Awami League, was with Panna while he was fleeing to India. However, calls to Amin’s mobile and WhatsApp numbers to confirm this have gone unanswered. Another source suggests that a leader of Jhalokathi Chhatra League was also with Panna.
Meanwhile, no specific information has been obtained from the police regarding this matter. No statements have been received regarding bringing Panna’s body back to Bangladesh. However, former Inspector General of Police (IGP) Mohammad Nurul Huda stated that whether someone enters India legally or illegally, there is no issue with bringing back the body. The matter simply needs to be reported to the Bangladesh embassy there. After that, the concerned officials will confirm whether the deceased person is a Bangladeshi citizen. Subsequently, arrangements will be made to send the body through the embassy’s funds or at the expense of the relatives.
Since Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and left the country on August 5, Ishaq Ali Khan Panna had been in hiding. On that same day, miscreants vandalized and set fire to his home on Parerhat Road in Pirojpur town. Panna had built a separate two-story house at his ancestral residence in Pirojpur, where the vandalism took place. Though one of his brothers still lives in that house, he has been in hiding since the fall of the government. Panna’s ancestral home is in Bekutia village of Kaukhali upazila in Pirojpur, but he rarely visited his village home. When in Pirojpur, he usually stayed at his town residence.
In 1994, Panna was elected as the general secretary of the Chhatra League, the student wing of the Awami League, during its conference. Although AKM Enamul Haque Shamim, who was elected as president in the same conference, later became an organizing secretary of the Awami League and served as an MP and deputy minister multiple times, Panna remained outside the Awami League’s central executive committee. However, after the 2012 conference, he became an assistant secretary of the party’s central sub-committee and later a member of various sub-committees. Until his death, he was a member of the Pirojpur district Awami League. Before that, in the 2008 election, Panna received the Awami League’s nomination for the Pirojpur-2 constituency but later had to withdraw due to the 14-party alliance-based election. In his professional life, the former Chhatra League leader was the chairman of the insurance company, Diamond Life Insurance Company Limited.
