Published : 21 Sep 2026, 02:15 PM
Updated : 21 Sep 2026, 02:15 PM
Since Monday morning, SM Masum Billah and his wife have been waiting at the Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital morgue to receive the body of their teenage daughter, Mariam Khatun.
Having just lost his daughter, Masum sometimes broke down in tears. At other times, he spoke calmly to reporters.
“I want a proper investigation so that we can get justice and those responsible are punished,” said Masum, the father-in-law of MP Gazi Nazrul Islam.
Asked when he had last spoken to his daughter and whether he knew about the difficulties she was facing, Masum said: “She wouldn’t talk to me very much. We always spoke to the MP, who would be with her. If we tried to talk to her, she wouldn’t speak to us.”
Masum blamed Obaidur Rahman, Mariam’s maternal uncle, for what happened to his daughter.
In a case filed over alleged abetment of suicide, Masum said Mariam had married Nazrul in June at the “direct instigation” of Obaidur.
“She would say to me, ‘How can I show my face in public? He is my uncle [Obaidur]. I didn’t know he would do me such harm. Please forgive me. I used to trust him more than my own father. I am suffering now because I believed him,’” Masum said.
“My daughter would fall at my feet and cry after saying these things. She would tell me about Obaidur. What happened to her today is because she believed him.
“If that incident had not happened, she would not have had to stay at the MP hostel, and this would not have happened.”
Mariam’s death came two months after a video showing Nazrul with the 19-year-old went viral on social media in July, triggering widespread discussion.
Nazrul subsequently acknowledged Mariam as his second wife amid widespread criticism and political pressure. Jamaat-e-Islami later expelled him from the party.
Asked about the family relationship between Nazrul and his daughter, Masum, a grocer, said the MP was his uncle.
Asked how the relationship between his daughter and his uncle developed, Masum said: “I did not know at first. I learnt about it later. But it is because of her uncle [Obaidur] that things have ended like this.”
Law enforcers have said handwritten notes were found in the NAM Bhaban flat where police recovered Mariam’s body.
Asked whether the notes were written by his daughter, Masum said: “I cannot say whether she wrote them. I do not know her handwriting.”
Police recovered Mariam’s body from the flat on Sunday evening and subsequently took Nazrul and his first wife, Maksuda Khanam, into custody.
Masum filed a case later that night accusing Nazrul, Maksuda and Obaidur of abetting suicide.
Several officials at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Police Station said police were preparing to seek a seven-day remand for Nazrul and Maksuda for questioning in the case.
They said preparations for the court application had been completed.
