Tahsif Souri’s body surfaced in the Turag River on Wednesday, ending a day-long search after he vanished on Tuesday evening. The former flight lieutenant, who was compulsorily retired from the Bangladesh Air Force a year after Sheikh Hasina’s government collapsed, was reportedly linked to a viral video showing the former prime minister fleeing the country on August 5, 2024. Police recovered the body and placed it on ice, noting that while blood was observed from his nose, the inquest report recorded no marks of external injury. Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed told reporters that official comments would follow the autopsy, refusing to confirm or deny whether Souri filmed the escape footage when pressed by journalists.
Souri’s father, KM Enayetul Karim Helal, provided a timeline that suggests a sudden disappearance. An acquaintance named Dwip took Souri out on Tuesday evening, and the last known contact was a message to his mother around 1:30 a.m. on Wednesday, promising he would return home. He never did. The family has not publicly accused any specific party of foul play, but the timing—occurring amid renewed political scrutiny of the 2024 transition—has intensified scrutiny. Souri had previously dismissed media claims that he was an agent for Indian intelligence agency RAW during a podcast interview, though he avoided directly addressing the Hasina video allegation.
The military’s public relations directorate (ISPR) had already denied in August 2025 that Souri’s compulsory retirement was connected to the video, insisting the action was unrelated to the officers’ recording activities. However, Ashraful Alam Khokan, a former aide to Hasina, challenged this narrative, asking if Souri was deliberately painted as a RAW agent to facilitate his killing. Khokan pointed out that Souri’s activities at the time aligned with the Muhammad Yunus-led interim government that seized power in July 2024. The tension between the military’s official stance and political allegations creates a volatile backdrop for the upcoming forensic findings.
The autopsy at Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College will be the decisive next step in determining whether Souri’s death was accidental, suicide, or homicide. Police have not arrested anyone in connection with the death, and no suspects have been named. Until the forensic report is released, the case remains shrouded in ambiguity, with political actors on all sides waiting for the medical evidence to validate their respective narratives about the events surrounding the former prime minister’s departure.