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Published : 10 Mar 2026, 11:04 AM
Police have arrested four members of a grave-robbing gang that dug up skeletons and sold them after processing.
They would buy the skeletons for Tk 5,000-7,000 after they were taken from graves, and sell them after processing, mainly to medical students, for Tk 15,000-20,000.
After arresting the four men with 47 skulls and bones of different human body parts from Tejgaon and Uttara in Dhaka on Monday, police said they have been involved in the business for several years.
The gang usually collected the skeletons from Gazipur, Mymensingh, Sherpur and Jamalpur areas.
The arrestees are Kazi Zahurul Islam Soumik, 25, Md Abul Kalam, 39, Asadul Munshi Jashim Ershad, 32, and Md Faisal Ahmed, 26.
Arrestee Soumik is a student in his final year at the Sapporo Dental College and Hospital in Uttara. Faisal has completed his final exams from the same college and was waiting to become an intern doctor.
Speaking at a press conference at the DMP Media Center on Tuesday afternoon, Tejgaon Division Deputy Commissioner Ibne Mizan said if any victim's family files a complaint with them, arrangements will be made to return the skeletons after DNA testing.
Tejgaon police say Soumik was detained in a raid on Monday afternoon after a tip-off regarding the whereabouts of a member of a grave-robbing gang stealing human skeletons from a graveyard in Tejgaon’s Monipuripara. A human skeleton was recovered from his possession.
Based on information from questioning him, Kalam and Munshi were detained in front of Tejgaon College. The two of them also had two skeletons in their possession.
The gang’s ringleader, Faisal, was detained from a house in Uttara Sector No. 9 based on information the detainees provided.
The law enforcers recovered 44 human skulls and portions of other illegally obtained human skeletons at the house.
Deputy Commissioner Mizan said, “They have an online wholesaling group. There are about 700 workers in the group, and about 20,000 group members.”
The gang has been active in the graverobbing and processing business for several years. Some of them have admitted to selling 20-25 or even 50 skeletons.
Police have received word that there are at least 21 cases naming Abul Kalam, including a case over stealing skeletons from graves in 2009. There are also two cases naming Ershad.
Mizan said, “They would buy the skeletons from the graveyards for Tk 5,000-7,000. Later, they would sell them for Tk 15,000-20,000, whatever they could get. Many people knew they sold them. When someone came to buy a skeleton or books it online, they take one to two weeks. Then the skeleton was delivered.”
Most of their buyers are medical students. However, there are other groups that buy at a low price and later sell them at a higher price.
He added, “They dig up the bones from the graves, process them, and then match the bones together. All four of them are involved in this process. Finally, they sell them to students.”
In response to a question, he said: "They initially spoke about four districts. They usually try to exhume the bodies a year after they are buried. First, they observe them. However, they cannot do these things in the more secure cemeteries.
"Where there are isolated graves, unprotected, without guards, without lighting or CCTV cameras, and where there is little traffic, they exhume the skeletons from those graves. After collecting them, they process them with chemicals and sell them."
He also said the arrestees will be remanded and questioned, and others involved with them will also be arrested.
