Former BCL general secretary Ishaque Ali Khan Panna reportedly dies in Meghalaya

Panna was supposed to enter India through Sylhet’s Tamabil border, says his brother-in-law

Ishaque Ali Khan Panna, the former general secretary of Bangladesh Chhatra League, has reportedly died after falling from a hill in Shillong in India’s Meghalaya.

Panna slipped and fell to his death on Saturday morning, said his nephew Laikuzzaman Talukder Mintu.

According to Mintu, those accompanying Panna in Shillong told him that the accident had occurred early in the morning while they were on a hill.

However, he could not provide further details about when and how Panna travelled to Shillong.

Panna's brother-in-law, Jasim Uddin, said he had heard Panna was supposed to enter India through Sylhet’s Tamabil border.

Several officers from the Pirojpur district police said they had no information regarding Panna's death.

Panna had been out of touch with his family since the fall of the Awami League government on Aug 5, said Mintu.

The exact location of Panna's body remains unclear.

Jasim said he last spoke to Panna three days ago, but there had been no communication since.

Panna, a resident of Pirojpur’s Kaukhali Upazila, was elected as the central general secretary of BCL in 1994.

After the party's conference in 2012, he became an assistant secretary of the Awami League's central sub-committee.

Panna's wife, Irin Parvin Badhon, who served as a deputy secretary and was a former vice-president of Dhaka University's Shamsunnahar Hall, died from cancer in 2016.

The couple are survived by their only son Iftesham Aftari Arian.