Followers of a prominent religious leader in Kushtia’s Daulatpur are accused of digging up his body from a local cemetery and reburying it at his own shrine.
The deceased was Abdur Rahman, alias “Pir” Shamim.
According to relatives of the deceased and local sources, Shamim had been buried at a local cemetery in the Filipnagar Darogar More area of the upazila. Sometime overnight last Friday, his followers dug up the grave and removed the body, then created a new grave and reburied it on the grounds of “Shamim Baba’s Darbar Sharif.”
The deceased darbar head’s elder brother, Fazlur Rahman, said, “When we heard the news in the morning and went to the cemetery, we found clear signs that the grave had been dug up and the body removed. We then went to the darbar grounds and found a newly dug grave that had been filled in, and reported the matter to police. Our family has no connection to this incident.”
After being informed, Daulatpur police station’s officer-in-charge, Khaledur Rahman, visited the scene Saturday afternoon. He said the initial investigation had found evidence of the grave being relocated, and that skeletal remains resembling a body had been found in the new grave at the darbar. He said it would need to be confirmed through legal and other necessary procedures whether the remains were indeed Shamim’s. The matter has been reported to senior officials, and further legal steps will be taken based on their instructions.
Upazila Assistant Commissioner (Land) Pradip Kumar Das, who was present at the scene, said a grave had been dug at the darbar grounds and a skeleton wrapped in polythene had been buried there. “We are trying to confirm whether the skeleton is Shamim’s. If this proves true, the body will be returned to its original grave,” he said.
Shamim’s darbar was attacked, vandalized and set on fire on the afternoon of April 11 this year over allegations of religious insult, and he was beaten to death the same day. He was buried at the local cemetery the following day, April 12, after an autopsy.
Over the killing, the deceased’s brother filed a case with Daulatpur police station naming four people, including a former Kushtia district Chhatra Shibir president and a Khelafat Majlish leader, along with another 180 to 200 unidentified individuals as accused.