Missing Khulna woman found dead in Mymensingh

Rahima Begum, 52, of Khulna, who has been missing since August 27, has been found dead in Mymensingh, family members suspect.

“I suspect my mother's body has been found,” this is what Moriom Mannan, Rahima’s daughter, wrote in a Facebook post today.

Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI), Khulna's Daulatpur police station and Mymensingh police couldn’t confirm the matter.

PBI is investigating the case filed over the woman's disappearance.

Khulna Superintendent of Police, Syed Mushfiqur Rahman, said the investigating officer of the case spoke to Moriom.

Moriom told them that her mother's body was recovered from Phulpur area of Mymensingh.

Mymensingh Police said the body of a woman was recovered from Phulpur on September 10 and was buried, said the officer. Police couldn’t identify the body recovered in Mymensingh, he said.

Moriom Mannan told the investigating officer she identified her mother's body by scrutinizing a photograph of the clothes the corpse was wearing.

Phulpur police station has collected the DNA samples of the recovered body.

The investigating officer asked Moriom to go to Phulpur police station on Saturday. There her DNA sample will be collected and matched with the DNA of the recovered body. “If the DNA matches it can be confirmed,” SP Mushfiqur.

On August 27, Rahima Begum went missing after she had stepped out to fetch water, near her home in Banikpara area of Doulatpur upazila in Khulna around 10pm. Her children found her sandals, scarf and the pitcher she was carrying from the spot.

The family first filed a complaint with the police, based on which an FIR was lodged by the cops against some people.

On September 13, after Rahima remained missing for 17 days and police failed to find her, her younger daughter Aduri Akter appealed to the Khulna court to transfer the case to PBI, said Rahima’s elder daughter Moriom Mannan.

The same day the court ordered the police to hand over the case to PBI, but the cops are yet to comply with the order, she told UNB.

When asked, Nazrul Islam, officer-in-charge of Doulatpur police station, said, “We have received the order and the case document will be handed over when PBI asks for it.”

So far, six people have been arrested in this case. They are Rahima’s second husband Belal Howladar, Mohiuddin, Palash, Jewel, Helal Sharif, and assistant engineer at Khulna University of Engineering and Technology (KUET) Golam Kibria.

As the case was investigated by PBI, a remand appeal made by the police to interrogate Rahima’s husband Belal remains pending for hearing, said the OC.

Rahima’s daughter Moriom, in a Facebook post, said that they have been putting up 'missing' posters in Khulna city in the hope they will get their mother back.