Female schoolteacher found dead with hands, feet tied in Barishal home

Police have recovered the decomposed body of a retired schoolteacher with her hands and feet tied inside her rented home in Barishal city.

The body of Amina Khanam, 65, was recovered from her bedroom on Rokeya Azim Road in Ward 4 on Thursday morning, Deputy Commissioner of Police Sushanta Sarkar said.

Khanam, a Hizla Upazila resident and retired teacher at Durgapur Government Primary School, lived alone on the second floor of a rented house owned by expatriate Shahabuddin.

One son lives in Dhaka and the other at their family home in Hizla.

When her elder son, a Dhaka bank employee, could not reach her by phone, he travelled to Barishal and alerted police.

Officers accompanied him to the house, where they found her room locked from outside and opened it with a key he had.

Inside, officers found her body with the room in disarray, its contents apparently disturbed or moved.

"We believe someone deliberately carried out the killing and then locked the room before leaving," Sarkar said.

"As the body had begun to give off a foul smell, we suspect she was killed two or three days ago."

Forensic, crime and Criminal Investigation Department teams worked at the scene, he said, adding that investigators were working to identify those responsible.

Police were also probing a possible robbery motive after Khanam’s son said she usually wore a gold chain.

Investigators were checking whether any valuables were missing. No arrests had been made, though several people were being questioned.

Kawnia Police Station Inspector Kamal Hossain said the son last spoke to his mother by phone at around 11am on Monday.

Her phone remained switched off throughout Wednesday, prompting him to come to Barishal that night and go to the police station before visiting the house with officers, he added.

Inspector Kamal said police were also looking into why the son went to the police station before going to his mother's home.

The body was sent to the hospital for a postmortem in the afternoon, Hossain said.