Published : 21 Sep 2026, 01:37 PM
Updated : 21 Sep 2026, 01:37 PM
The father of Mariam Khatun, whose hanging body was recovered from a Dhaka flat, has accused MP Gazi Nazrul Islam and his first wife of physically and mentally abusing his daughter after her marriage to the expelled Jamaat-e-Islami politician.
SM Masum Billah made the allegations in a case filed with Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Police Station accusing Nazrul, his first wife Maksuda Khanam and Mariam’s maternal uncle Obaidur Rahman of abetting suicide.
Police recovered 19-year-old Mariam’s body from a flat at NAM Bhaban opposite the parliament complex on Sunday evening.
Nazrul and Maksuda were taken into police custody later that night. Maksuda has since been placed under arrest in the case, while police said they would follow the required procedures to formally arrest Nazrul as he is an MP.
Several officers at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Police Station said police planned to seek seven days to question Nazrul and Maksuda in custody.
According to the case statement, Mariam married Nazrul in June at the “direct instigation” of her uncle Obaidur.
She had been living with Nazrul and Maksuda at Flat 203 of NAM Bhaban No. 5, opposite the parliament complex.
Masum alleged that his daughter had told her family that Nazrul and Maksuda subjected her to physical and mental abuse over various issues after the marriage.
He said Nazrul called him around 5:30pm on Sunday and asked him to come to the flat quickly.
When he arrived, Masum said, he found his daughter hanging.
Masum said in the case statement that he found several handwritten notes on Mariam’s bed as her body was being recovered.
In one, Mariam wrote: “I bow down to you again and again only because I have grown attached to you. Otherwise, I am not as cheap as you think I am.”
Another used the imagery of a battle and betrayal.
“I entered the battle with him with complete faith. I could not win. I was defeated on the battlefield,” she wrote.
“How could I have won when, at the very end of the battle, I discovered that you were the commander of the opposing army?”
The note continued: “I lost and you won, because it was only by betraying the trust I placed in you that you were able to defeat me.”
In another note, Mariam appeared to reflect on her relationship with a married man.
“He was another woman’s husband. On paper, his wife had the rights over him. And I was the fool. I had made someone else’s husband the man I desired for myself,” she wrote.
A separate passage read: “Losing someone is more honourable than having only half of them. Because love is never something to be shared. Love is either whole, or it remains incomplete.”
