Another woman's decomposed body found in Dhaka’s Pallabi

The woman’s husband and children are expatriates living in Canada

Amid widespread debate over the death of an elderly woman living alone in Dhaka's Pallabi, police have recovered the decomposed body of another woman from a different house in the area.

The woman, who is approximately 55 years old, has been identified as Selina Afroz.

Her husband, Mominul Haque, and three children are expatriates living in Canada.

Pallabi Police Inspector Emdad said the body was recovered from a third-floor flat on Road No. 10 in Section 6 of Pallabi early on Wednesday morning after a report on the national emergency service 999.

"We received the report on 999 late on Tuesday night. Then we recovered the body from the house and sent it to Suhrawardy Hospital for postmortem. Looking at the condition of the body, it seemed that she had died several days ago," he said.

Police say Selina has a son and two daughters. She had also lived in Canada with her husband and children but had returned to the country eight to 10 years ago and was living alone in the flat of her father's house in Pallabi.

Her sister lives on the fourth floor of the house with her family.

Sub-Inspector Mobarak Ali said, "Selina Afroz returned to the country eight to 10 years ago and was living alone in that house because she could not get along with her husband. She did not have any house help. She used to go to the market herself. She used to cook for herself. The house was also very dirty."

"The last time her nephew spoke to the deceased [Selina] was around 11pm on May 26. Since then, she had not communicated with anyone."

After the autopsy of the body, the relatives buried her at the Jannatul Mawa Graveyard near the house on Wednesday, he said.

Emdad said, “A case of unnatural death has been registered over this incident. The exact cause of death can be confirmed after receiving the postmortem report.”

Police recovered the body of an elderly woman named Nurjahan Begum from a house on Road No. 8 in Section No. 6 of Pallabi on Sunday night.

She had been living in a room of her daughter’s house on the fourth floor of the multi-storey building for a long time.

The recovery of the decomposed body of Nurjahan, who was often alone, sparked widespread criticism about the actions of her children.

Of her four children, the eldest son is a joint secretary in the government, the middle son is a teacher at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), the youngest son lives in Canada, and the daughter is a teacher at a local school. Meanwhile, her son, Joint Secretary Anisur Rahman was made an OSD on Wednesday.