Two Young Men's Bodies Recovered from Atharobanki River in Khulna's Rupsa, Bloodied Head Wounds Found

Police have recovered the bodies of two young men from the Atharobanki River in Rupsa upazila of Khulna. The bodies were found floating on Monday (2 November) afternoon beside a banana grove at Singher Char in Mochabbbarpur village of Aichgati union. Both bodies bore bloodied wounds on the head.

The dead were identified as Mehedi Hasan Sohag (35), son of Abdullah of Rajapur village in Rupsa upazila, and Rezaul Karim (30) of the Singher Char area. Sohag was known to have worked as a boatman at the Jailkhana Ghat.

Rupsa police sub-inspector Nur Alam said local people saw bodies floating in the river at around 12:30pm and informed the police station. Police reached the spot and recovered the two bodies at around 1:30pm.

According to local sources, residents first saw one body floating in the mud of the river. A short while later, another body surfaced in the same area, and they then informed the police. As news of the recovery spread, crowds of onlookers gathered on both banks of the river.

Locals claimed the bodies had been stuck on the river char and were giving off a foul smell. However, how or when the head wounds were inflicted has not yet been confirmed.

According to preliminary police information, Sohag was a member of a criminal group known as ‘B Company’. However, the cause of their deaths and how the bodies ended up in the river remain unconfirmed.

Rupsa police officer-in-charge Md Masum Khan confirmed the recovery of the two bodies from the river and said police are working to uncover the reason behind the incident.

The recovery came after two killings in Khulna within a span of 20 hours. On Sunday evening, Tanti Dal leader Syed Humayun Kabir was killed in an attack with sharp weapons while sitting at his own business establishment in the Raymahal area of Aranghata police station. The previous night, on Saturday, a young man named Shahidul (35) was hacked to death in the city's Darogapara area.

Police said an investigation is under way to determine the cause of the two men's deaths, how the bodies came to be in the river, and who may be involved. Until the post-mortem and investigation results are available, the actual cause of death cannot be confirmed.