(Previous Incident Code: IRUAE260401a )

On the morning of Wednesday, April 1, 2026, a Bangladeshi national named Shah Alam Bhuiyan (age 45 or 50), was killed as a result of falling shrapnel from the alleged interception of an Iranian drone in the Al-Rifa’a area of Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates.

WAM News Agency reported on its Twitter/X account @wamnews that “authorities in Fujairah are dealing with an incident that occurred on a farm in the Al-Rifa’a area as a result of shrapnel falling from an intercepted drone, which led to the death of a Bangladeshi national.” Other news sources carried this information as well.

According to a report by TBS News, Shah Alam Bhuiyan was 50 years old when he was killed and was a father of four. After completing a three-month leave in 2025, during which he had visited Bangladesh, he returned to his workplace at a farm in Fujairah. He had been living in the United Arab Emirates since 2013.

Desh Rupantor reported that the father of two sons and two daughters “had migrated to the desert country almost a decade ago in the hope of making his family prosperous. He had managed to regain some prosperity during his long exile.”

According to family sources cited by TBS News, early on the morning of Wednesday, a warning siren was sounded in the Dibba Al-Fujairah area, prompting people to move to safer locations. At that time, while on his way to work, Shah Alam Bhuiyan was struck by debris from a drone and died on the spot. The report also contained an image of the late Shah, a middle-aged man with short dark hair and a greying beard, wearing a light-blue shirt.

A report by the Bangladeshi newspaper The Daily Star claimed that Shah was 45 years old – slightly differing from the TBS article. His wife and four children live in Bangladesh, and, according to Jakir Hossain, a local union parishad member, sad news of his death had left the family and community in shock. “A heavy atmosphere is prevailing at his home. His wife, two sons and two daughters are devastated,” he said. The family has appealed to the government to arrange the swift repatriation of his body.

On April 9, Daily Inqilab reported that Shah’s “body reached the country on Thursday (April 9) afternoon after he was killed by the debris of a downed drone” and noted that “the atmosphere became heavy with the wailing of relatives surrounding the coffin, and a shadow of grief fell on the entire family.”

The sources did not attribute the drone strike to a particular belligerent, with the exception of TBS news, which alleged that the drone was Iranian: “Locals claimed that the wreckage fell in the area after a drone launched from Iran was shot down.” Multiple sources specified that the interception of the drone was carried out by “UAE air defence forces”. Therefore, both militaries have been listed as potential belligerents and the incident has been graded as “contested”. No remnants of the munition were publicly available. This assessment will be updated if additional information emerges.