Published : 22 Jun 2026, 04:05 PM
Cyprus police have recovered the body of a 22-year-old Bangladeshi student nine days after he went missing from the eastern Mediterranean island nation.
Investigators found the decomposing body of Shahriar Ahmed Emon buried in a shallow grave near Kofinou of the Larnaca district on Sunday.
Law enforcers have arrested a 22-year-old man in connection with the murder, suspecting Emon was slain on the very night he disappeared on Jun 12.
Emon, the son of Nasir Miah from Bakhar Nagar under Narsingdi's Raipura Thana, lived in the Oroklini village in Larnaca.
Local outlets, including Philenews and Cyprus Times, reported that Emon left home on Jun 12 to travel by bus to his first day of work at a factory in Kofinou.
That night he sent his location to a friend via a mobile app and messaged his father, who was in Greece, asking for help. His phone then went dead and all contact was lost.
Following his disappearance, Emon’s father sought help from both Cypriot and Greek authorities.
From the following day, unknown individuals allegedly used Emon’s phone to contact his father and demand a ransom.
According to detectives, the killer staged a fake kidnapping drama to extort money from the family.
After tracing the final signal from Emon’s mobile phone to Kofinou, local police, Criminal Investigation Department (CID) officers, and intelligence teams scanned CCTV footage and bus routes.
During police interrogation, the arrested suspect “confessed to the murder”.
Based on his directions, officers recovered the weapon used in the killing along with Emon’s personal belongings.
Investigators found that the suspect had met the Bangladeshi student on a bus some time earlier.
The suspect claimed Emon had insulted him during that encounter and said the killing was an act of revenge -- but police believe the primary motive was premeditated extortion.
On the day of the murder, the suspect lured Emon into a car under the pretext of a job offer, drove him from Oroklini to Kofinon, killed him there, and buried the body in a shallow pit.
Cyprus police’s forensic unit has cordoned off the site where the body was found and is collecting evidence. Investigators are probing possible involvement of others and exploring whether there were additional motives behind the killing.