Syed Saimun Kanak, mass-media affairs secretary of Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD) central committee, was killed in a wild elephant attack in Darjeeling of India on Friday.
Quoting Kanak's wife Mala Saimun, Kushtia district unit JSD President Golam Mohsin said, Kanak was killed at Dooars in Darjeeling in the afternoon.
Kanak, 50, of Kumarkhali upazila in Kushtia, was a businessman and used to live in the Sadarghat area of Old Dhaka.
Son of former JSD central leader, late Noor Alam Ziku, active in the 1971 Liberation War, Kanak was also media affairs secretary of JSD.
The incident took place in the Murti area of Nagarkata police station in Dooars of Darjeeling, said Shri Ashim Majumdar, officer-in-charge (OC) of Nagarkata police station.
Some visitors were going to Khuniar forest from Murti in a private car. On the way, three passengers, including Kanak, left the car seeing an elephant on a road in Murti around 5:00pm to take photos of the wild animal.
Kanak died on the spot when he was attacked by the elephant as he tried to take the photograph, the OC said, adding that the two others managed to escape the attack and return to the car.
Police from Nagarkata police station rushed to the spot and recovered the body, he said.
With this, a total of five people have died from elephant attacks in the last five days since Monday, the OC added.
Relatives have started for India to receive Kanak’s body, said Mohsin.
The body will be brought home on Sunday after conducting an autopsy.
He will be buried in Dhaka, Mohsin also said.