Body recovered from Meghna is of missing journalist Bibhuranjan, family confirms
The body recovered from the Meghna River in Munshiganj is of missing journalist Bibhuranjan Sarkar, his family members confirmed on Friday night.
Bibhuranjan Sarkar’s son Hrito Sarkar and brother Chiranjan Sarkar identified the body at the morgue of Munshiganj General Hospital around 8:45 pm today.
Bibhuranjan Sarkar, 71, Senior Assistant Editor at the daily Ajker Patrika, had been missing since leaving his Siddheshwari residence in the capital around 10:00 am Thursday.
His family filed a general diary (GD) with Ramna police station reporting his disappearance last night.
Members of the Kalagachhia River Police Outpost in Narayanganj found a body floating in the Meghna River near Balakir Char in Gazaria and recovered it around 3:45 pm today.
Kalagachhia River Police Outpost officer-in-charge Mohammad Saleh Ahmed Pathan told Prothom Alo in the evening that the body was seen floating in the Meghna at Balakir Char this afternoon. Locals informed them through the emergency helpline, 999.
“Our team recovered the body around 3:45 pm. It was later sent to the Munshiganj General Hospital morgue for post-mortem,” he added.
He further said that the photograph of the body had been sent to Ramna police station. Relatives of the missing journalist have identified the body as that of Bibhuranjan Sarker after viewing the images. Then Hrito Sarkar and Chiranjan Sarkar started for Munshiganj.
Hrito Sarkar filed the GD at Ramna police station last night, stating that his father had left their Siddheshwari home around 10:00 am Thursday, saying he was going for work at Ajker Patrika.
He was expected to return home by 5:00 pm but had left his mobile phone behind. As he did not return by 9:00 pm, Hrito contacted Ajker Patrika’s Acting Editor Kamrul Hasan, who said that Bibhuranjan had never arrived at the office.
Despite searches in various places, he remained untraced.
Meanwhile, an online news outlet published a piece by Bibhuranjan Sarkar under the headline “Khola Chithi”. It reported that he had emailed the article to them at around 9:15 am on Thursday, with a footnote stating, “You may publish this as the last piece of writing of my life”.
In the article, Sarkar reflected on key moments of his long career in journalism, the incumbent interim government and media environment, his own and his son’s illness, the “failure” of his daughter, a government medical officer, in a higher-level examination, the unemployment of his son despite graduating from BUET, and his deep frustration over his financial distress.