Police have recovered the hanging body of a young wife, Mahfuza Akter Moni, 18, in Mahalchhari upazila of Khagrachhari. Her husband and father-in-law say she took her own life. Her family says she was murdered.
The body was recovered on Sunday morning (25 October) from her husband’s home in the Nunchhari cluster village of Maischhari union in the upazila.
Mahfuza was the daughter of Md Mojibur Rahman of the upazila’s Sadar union.
According to the family, Mahfuza married Md Sujon, 20, son of Md Nur Alam of Nunchhari cluster village, in an arranged marriage in 2024. The couple have a one-year-old child.
Her father-in-law, Md Nur Alam, said the couple had argued the previous night and that he had talked them round and reconciled them. After everyone ate dinner together, they went to bed. When he got up at 4am and went outside, he saw the door of his son’s room open and called out to Sujon. Sujon woke to find their child beside him but his wife missing. After calling for her and getting no answer, they grew suspicious when they saw the door of an empty room in the house shut. When they opened it, they found Mahfuza hanging.
Mahfuza’s family says it was not suicide but a planned murder. They allege she had been abused at various times since the marriage, and that the killing followed that pattern of abuse.
Her maternal uncle, Md Somer Ali, said: “My niece was abused in various ways ever since the marriage. Yesterday she phoned to tell us she had been beaten. What she said worried me a great deal. Today we learned she had been found dead. I believe she was killed and then hung by the neck. But none of us saw her hanging. We want a fair investigation and justice.”
Mirza Zahir Uddin, officer in charge of Mahalchhari police station, said the body had been sent to Khagrachhari Sadar Hospital for a post-mortem. The actual cause of death will be known once the post-mortem report arrives. An unnatural death case has been filed and the death is being investigated.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report