One arrested over death of female lawyer

Police recovered the body of a female lawyer from her father’s house in Moulvibazar’s Barlekha upazila early yesterday.

Abida Sultana, 35, was a member of Moulvibazar Bar Association and lived in the town with her husband, said Yasinul Huque, officer-in-charge of Barlekha Police Station.

Being informed by the victim’s family member, police went to the house in Madhabgul village and recovered the body, which bore multiple stab wounds, from a room that was locked from outside around 2:30am, the OC added.

Police arrested one Tanvir Ahmed, a tenant of the house, from Sreemangal’s Baruna area around 5:00pm.

Tanvir was an imam of a local mosque and had been on the run since Sunday night, the OC said, adding that they had received some specific allegations against Tanvir.

The OC, however, did not want to disclose the allegations for the sake of investigation.

Police also detained Tanvir’s wife and mother for interrogation.

Sajida Sultana, sister of the victim, told The Daily Star that Abida came to their house in Beanibazar upazila on Friday.

On Sunday morning, Abida told her that she urgently needed to visit their Barlekha house and from there she would go to her home in Moulvibazar town, Sajida said.

Abida was the eldest among the three siblings and used to collect the rent of their house that was rented out to Tanvir’s family, Sajida said, adding that there was also a room in the house only for their family members.

“I called Abida in the afternoon just to check if she had reached home safely but found her phone was switched off.”

“Later, we went to our Barlekha house and found that our room was locked from outside. We then informed the police and they recovered the body,” said the mourning sister.

OC Yasin said they had sent the body to Moulvibazar Sadar Hospital for an autopsy.

A team of Police Bureau of Investigation visited the spot, the OC added.

Meanwhile, Moulvibazar Bar Association held several protest programmes in the city seeking justice for Abida.