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Published : 23 Aug 2025, 07:11 PM
Tears broke out at the Siddheshwari home of Bibhuranjan Sarkar as his body was brought back, with wife Shefali Sarkar and relatives collapsing in grief.
The veteran journalist had left home on Thursday morning, saying he was heading to his office. Instead, he returned lifeless two days later, his body recovered from the Meghna River in Munshiganj.
Police retrieved the body on Friday afternoon, a day after he went missing.
Following a postmortem at Munshiganj General Hospital, the body was taken to his rented flat in Dhaka around 5:15pm on Saturday, where colleagues, friends and neighbours had already gathered.
His sister Bharati Sarkar, who came from Bogura, said she still did not know how her brother had died. His younger brother Chiraranjan Sarkar said the body would be taken to Boro Deshwari Kalimata Temple in Basabo for cremation.
Sharif Uddin Ahmed, presidium chief of Khelaghar, said Bibhuranjan’s readers would struggle to accept such an end for a journalist they admired. Family friend and banker Asaduzzaman Mukul recalled growing up reading his columns in Jaijaidin under the pen name Tariq Ibrahim, saying his final open letter raised deep questions about the state of journalism in Bangladesh.
Aged 71, Bibhuranjan had been working at Ajker Patrika while contributing columns to several outlets, including bdnews24.com. His last article, sent to bdnews24.com by email at 9:15am on Thursday, carried a footnote suggesting it could be his final piece.
It was later published on Friday under the title “Khola Chithi”, where he wrote candidly of despair over his own and his son’s illnesses, his daughter’s academic struggles, his son’s unemployment despite a BUET degree, and his own financial distress.
Family members said he left his mobile phone at home before disappearing. His son Ritu Sarkar filed a missing person report with Ramna police that night after his father failed to return.
