Bangladesh's ruling party lawmaker found dead in India

DHAKA, Bangladesh

Kolkata police have discovered the body of Anwarul Azim, a Bangladeshi member of parliament, after he went missing in India for eight days.

Azim’s body was found in an abandoned house in Kolkata's New Town during the early hours of Wednesday, a deputy police commissioner confirmed.

The lawmaker from a southwestern constituency representing the ruling Awami League party disappeared the day after he traveled to India for medical purposes on May 12, according to his family members.

A report on his disappearance was later lodged at the Baranagar police station in North Kolkata on May 18.

According to the report, Azim visited the residence of a person named Gopal Biswas in Kolkata on May 12. The next day, he departed from Biswas’s residence to see a doctor. He informed his family that he would be back to Bangladesh in the evening.

But he remained incommunicado since then, Azim’s personal assistant Abdour Rauf told Anadolu.

On May 19, his daughter Mumtarin Ferdous Doreen told reporters she had sought the assistance of the Detective Branch of Bangladesh police to locate her father.

For the past three days, the special unit had been working with Kolkata police, its chief Harun-or-Rashid informed Anadolu. “His body was found early in the morning today,” Rashid said, adding: “The cause of death is still unknown.”

Azim’s daughter is now in Kolkata to receive the body.