“Please bring my Sweety back. Whether she is alive or dead, bring my daughter back to me.”
These are the desperate pleas of Johura Begum of Mirzapur upazila in Tangail, as reports and photographs circulating on social media of the beheading of two Bangladeshis in Saudi Arabia have raised fears about her daughter, Sweety Akter, 25.
The family suspects that one of the women shown in the circulating photographs is Sweety. However, they have been unable to confirm the matter through any official source.
Sweety travelled to Saudi Arabia three years ago in search of a livelihood. Her last contact with her family was on October 13, when she told her mother that she would return home in two months.
But following reports of the beheading of two Bangladeshis in Saudi Arabia, her parents have been living in extreme anxiety over her fate.
Sweety is the daughter of Fazal Mia and a resident of Nagar Chhawali village in Mahera Union of Mirzapur upazila.
During a visit to the family home on Tuesday, her mother was seen breaking down in tears while clutching her daughter’s photograph. Her father sat silently, waiting for her return.
The family is desperate for answers about whether Sweety is still alive or has met a tragic fate.
Fazal Mia said he had been able to speak with his daughter intermittently while she was in prison, sometimes after a week and sometimes after a month. This continued for about a year before contact suddenly stopped.
After a gap of another year, Sweety contacted the family again by phone and told them she was still in jail.
This continued for approximately four months, after which they lost contact again.
Her father said he last spoke to Sweety on Tuesday evening after Maghrib prayers. She did not tell him anything about a trial or a death sentence.
Family members said Sweety married for the first time in 2017, while she was in Class Eight, in the village of Tarfapur in the same upazila. The marriage ended within a year. She married again a year later in Hilra village.
Her family borrowed money to send her second husband to Saudi Arabia, but he stopped communicating with her about six months after arriving in the country. The couple later divorced.
In 2023, Sweety travelled to Saudi Arabia through a local recruiting broker.
According to her relatives, she was promised a job as a cleaner, and they paid Tk 150,000 to a broker named Natu Mia. She subsequently worked as a cleaner for the Al Majal Al Arabi Group Company in Mecca.
About six months after arriving in Saudi Arabia, Sweety was arrested. However, her family learned of her detention only about a year later.
Relatives said Sweety herself had informed them by phone that she had been detained in connection with an assault case.
A friend of hers living in Saudi Arabia, however, reportedly told the family that Sweety had been arrested following a relationship with a Bangladeshi man.
Sweety’s mother, Johura Begum, said her daughter used to care for elderly people in Mecca and was not someone who got into arguments.
She claimed that Sweety had been detained when other women were involved in a dispute.
The lack of reliable information about her daughter’s current condition has further heightened her anxiety.
Fazal Mia said he worked hard driving a pedal van and borrowed money to send his daughter abroad in the hope of a better life.
“I sent her abroad after taking loans, hoping she would have a better life. She worked well for six months, but after that, I received no more news. There was a fight at another site, and the police arrested my daughter,” he said.
Neighbour Bidyut Saha said local residents did not know what crime Sweety was accused of committing. He called for a prompt investigation to establish the facts.
The family and local residents have urged the authorities to take immediate steps to bring Sweety home if she is still alive.
If reports of her death prove true, they want arrangements made to repatriate her remains to Bangladesh.
Mirzapur Police Station Officer-in-Charge Abdullah Al Mamun said police had no confirmed information about the incident.
However, as reports continued to circulate through various channels, police were attempting to visit Sweety’s home and gather information.
Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Zahirul Alam also said no official information had been received. He added that officials had heard about the matter through social media and other channels and would look into it.