Property dispute among sons delays father’s funeral for 30 hours in Kurigram

The standoff ends after village elders set up an arbitration to resolve the inheritance issues

A family feud over property inheritance has delayed a father’s funeral for nearly 30 hours in Kurigram's Nageshwari Upazila.

The funeral was later held following a written agreement mediated by village elders.

According to local residents, 75-year-old Azizar Rahman passed away due to old age on Tuesday evening.

His funeral had been scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.

His sons, however, disrupted the process, demanding that their inheritance issues be settled before the funeral rites.

The standoff lasted until midnight on Wednesday, when the body was buried following an arbitration.

Azizar had married twice, and a property dispute between the children of the two wives had been ongoing for a long time.

Abdur Rahman, former mayor of Nageshwari Municipality, said that Azizar had transferred his homestead and all other movable and immovable property to Rafiqul Islam, the son from his second marriage.

This led to a dispute with Abdul Hakim, the son from his first marriage.

Hakim raised objections to the burial following Azizar’s death, saying the funeral prayer and burial could not be held until the inheritance problem was resolved.

Local residents said an agreement was finally reached around 10am with the decision that the sons will get .032 hectares each from the man’s homestead of .084 hectares. The rest of the inheritance will go to their sister.

Another dispute over arable land would be settled legally, the arbitrators decided.

Following this, a written agreement was signed on a Tk 300 non-judicial stamp.

After both parties signed the document, the sons gave their consent to the burial at 11pm.

Nageshwari Police chief Abdullah Hil Jamal said he became aware of the matter only after the dispute was settled and the burial was completed.