On 23 August, river police recovered the bodies of a woman, a child, a young man and a young woman from the Buriganga in Dhaka within a span of six hours. Black cloth was wrapped around the woman’s neck, while the child’s body was wrapped in a scarf.
The young man and woman had their hands tied together, and both had visible injuries. Police suspect they were murdered and their bodies dumped in the river to conceal the crimes. As their identities could not be established, all four bodies were buried as unidentified persons 11 days later.
Earlier, on 30 April last year, police recovered the body of an unidentified woman from a river in Narayanganj. A scarf had been wrapped around a bamboo pole beside the body. The woman was naked. She was buried as an unidentified person in the area. Her relatives later identified her after seeing photographs kept at the police station. The investigation revealed that she had been murdered. One person arrested in connection with the case subsequently gave a confessional statement in court.
River police recovered 2,064 bodies from rivers across Bangladesh between January 2021 and December 2025, a period of five years. Another 430 bodies were recovered between January and September this year. In total, 2,494 bodies were recovered over five years and nine months.
The bodies included victims of murder, people who accidentally fell into rivers and drowned, and people who died by suicide after jumping into the water.
River police officials say criminals dump bodies in rivers after committing murders to destroy evidence and evade arrest. They consider rivers a “safe place” to dispose of bodies and conceal their crimes.
The overall picture over five years and nine months
According to statistics from the River Police Headquarters, more men than women were among the bodies recovered between January 2021 and September this year. The remains of women and children were also found.
During this period, 392 murder cases were filed at police stations across the country, along with 26 cases involving suicide by jumping into rivers. Other deaths occurred while people were fishing, travelling or bathing, as well as in natural disasters and boat accidents. A total of 2,077 cases of unnatural death were filed.
According to figures provided by the River Police Headquarters, 1,739 of the recovered bodies were identified, while the identities of 755 remain unknown.
Cases are filed at the relevant police stations based on evidence found on recovered bodies. Bodies whose identities cannot be established are buried as unidentified persons by Anjuman Mufidul Islam, a charitable organisation.
DNA samples are collected from all recovered bodies, and photographs are taken and kept at the relevant police stations. If someone subsequently visits a police station and identifies a body after its burial, the police take steps to advance the case and further investigation based on the identification and other findings.
2021–25: 2,064 bodies recovered in five years
According to River Police Headquarters data, 318 bodies were recovered in 2021, 360 in 2022, 405 in 2023, 440 in 2024 and 541 in 2025. This brought the total to 2,064 over the five years. Murder cases were filed in 335 incidents in which the deaths were identified as homicides.
The number of bodies recovered increased every year during this period, reaching its highest level in 2025.
First nine months of this year: 430 bodies recovered
Of the 430 bodies recovered between January and September this year, 314 people were identified. The remaining 116 were buried as unidentified persons by Anjuman Mufidul Islam.
During these nine months, 57 murder cases were filed in connection with recovered bodies.
The police data also recorded 116 deaths while bathing, 57 while travelling or visiting places, 38 in boat accidents, 37 while fishing, 19 after falling from watercraft, two in natural disasters and one after jumping into a river. These categories accounted for 270 deaths.
The cause of death of another 104 people could not be determined, according to police data. Cases of unnatural death were filed in these instances.
Regional breakdown
River police have divided the country's waterways into 11 regions: Dhaka, Narayanganj, Chattogram, Chandpur, Barishal, Faridpur, Kishoreganj, Rajshahi, Tangail, Khulna and Sylhet.
The Dhaka region covers the Buriganga, the Balu River near Khilkhet, part of the Shitalakkhya, the Padma near Dohar and the Meghna near Narsingdi.
Regional data are available from January 2023 to September 2026. Over these three years and nine months, the highest number of bodies—398—were recovered in the Dhaka region, followed by Narayanganj with 253. Sylhet recorded the lowest number, at 20.
During the same period, 211 bodies were recovered in Barishal, 177 in Rajshahi, 167 in Chattogram, 149 in Faridpur, 127 each in Chandpur and Khulna, 94 in Kishoreganj and 93 in Tangail.
Dhaka also recorded the highest number of recoveries during the first nine months of this year, with 78 bodies. Barishal ranked second with 63, followed by Narayanganj with 60, Rajshahi with 55, Faridpur with 50, Tangail with 29, Khulna with 23, and Chattogram, Chandpur and Kishoreganj with 22 each. Six bodies were recovered in Sylhet.
Unidentified bodies hamper investigations
River police officials say many bodies have already begun decomposing before they surface. Fingerprints disappear and faces become disfigured, making identification difficult. Sometimes, only human skeletons are recovered.
Even when a post-mortem examination establishes evidence of murder, investigators may be unable to bring the perpetrators to justice if the victim's identity remains unknown. In other cases, the identity may eventually be established through various means, but decomposition makes it impossible to determine the cause of death.
Of the four bodies recovered from the Buriganga on 23 August, the body of a 30-year-old woman and that of a child aged three to four were found on the riverbank near the Mirerbag Cold Storage area in Keraniganj. The bodies of the young man and woman were recovered near Madaripur Ghat in Kalindi. All four bodies had begun decomposing. As no one came forward to claim them, Anjuman Mufidul Islam buried them as unidentified persons 11 days later.
Abdullah Al Mamun, superintendent of police for the Dhaka region of the River Police, told Prothom Alo that the killers had dumped the bodies in the river to conceal their crimes.
Two murder cases have been filed: one at South Keraniganj Police Station over the bodies of the woman and child, and another at Keraniganj Model Police Station over the bodies of the young man and woman. Photographs and DNA samples have been preserved. If anyone approaches the police stations looking for the missing individuals, investigators will attempt to establish their identities through DNA matching, he said.
Identity established through photographs and socks
On 16 January last year, river police recovered a man's body from the Shitalakkhya River in Narayanganj. The body was sent to the morgue at Narayanganj General Hospital for a post-mortem examination. The Kachpur River Police kept photographs of the body. As his identity could not be established, he was buried through Anjuman Mufidul Islam.
Later, his son Mahbubur Rahman identified the body as that of his father, Jabbar Hawlader, 45, by examining the photographs preserved by the police and the socks on the deceased man's feet. Jabbar worked as an autorickshaw driver. Mahbubur subsequently filed a murder case against unidentified individuals at Siddhirganj Police Station.
The investigation was assigned to Mainul Islam, a sub-inspector at the Kachpur River Police outpost. He is now serving at the River Police outpost under Bandar Police Station in Narayanganj.
Mainul Islam told Prothom Alo that the family had informed him that Jabbar had left home to drive his autorickshaw on 13 January last year and never returned. He had taken his mobile phone with him.
Following a lead from the phone, police detained a young man named Al Amin. During questioning, Al Amin said that a man named Shawon had sold him the phone.
Police subsequently detained and questioned Shawon. According to Mainul Islam, Shawon confessed to the murder and said that, after evening, he had lured Jabbar into consuming a soft drink mixed with an intoxicating substance and high-dose sleeping pills to render him unconscious, intending to steal his autorickshaw.
Jabbar was then removed from the autorickshaw while unconscious and thrown into the river from Adamjee Ghat in Narayanganj. Seven people shared the proceeds from the sale of the autorickshaw and the mobile phone, according to the account.
Mainul Islam said seven people involved in the crime had been arrested. Police recovered Jabbar's autorickshaw and mobile phone from them. Four of the accused gave confessional statements in court. They were members of an organised autorickshaw theft and robbery gang.
What post-mortem examinations reveal
River police sources say cases of unnatural death are generally filed when a body recovered from a river shows no signs of injury or has decomposed. However, if the condition of the body, physical evidence and surrounding circumstances suggest anything suspicious, river police file a murder case at the relevant police station, even if the victim's identity is unknown.
If an investigation and post-mortem examination establish that a death was a homicide, the case initially filed as an unnatural death is converted into a murder case, which the river police then investigate.
According to River Police Headquarters, post-mortem reports in confirmed homicide cases have cited rape, strangulation, head injuries and death caused by being thrown into water. River police have also recovered bodies with severed or injured hands, legs, necks and other body parts, as well as bodies wrapped in sacks. Murder cases are filed in such incidents.
Professor Mostaque Rahim, president of the Medicolegal Society of Bangladesh, told Prothom Alo that bodies recovered from rivers are often decomposed. Even when injuries or cuts are visible, decomposition can destroy crucial evidence. Fish and insects feeding on the bodies can also damage evidence, making it difficult to establish the cause of death.
In hot weather, bodies of people who have drowned may surface within 24 hours. If recovered at that stage, the cause of death can often be determined, he said.
Professor Mostaque Rahim added that the forensic medicine departments of government medical colleges in Bangladesh lacked modern equipment and laboratories. Establishing such facilities would help forensic experts assess deaths even when bodies had decomposed and determine the precise cause of death.
River police sources also said they collect general diaries (GDs) filed at police stations across the country concerning missing persons and investigate them with particular attention. Leads from these reports sometimes result in bodies being recovered from rivers.
Surveillance at river ghats and other potential dumping sites
Mohammad Rezaul Karim, additional inspector general of the River Police, told Prothom Alo that the circumstances surrounding a death cannot be unravelled if the victim's identity remains unknown.
Information obtained from investigations into murder cases involving bodies recovered from rivers indicates that killings are motivated by business disputes, family conflicts, disputes over drug trafficking, extramarital relationships and vehicle theft. After committing the murders, perpetrators dump the bodies in rivers to prevent identification, he said.
Asked why more bodies are recovered in the Dhaka and Narayanganj regions, the River Police chief said Dhaka, Narayanganj and Munshiganj are among the country's most densely populated areas. Business activity and employment opportunities are also concentrated there, and crime levels are correspondingly higher.
Asked what measures could prevent criminals from dumping bodies in rivers, Additional IGP Rezaul Karim said perpetrators often dispose of bodies in remote, isolated locations. The bodies subsequently drift with the current and are eventually recovered.
Police are analysing the waterways to identify the points used to dump bodies. Intelligence surveillance is being maintained around the clock at river ghats, riverside markets and roads. Several potential dumping sites, including Adamjee Ghat in Narayanganj, have been identified, and intelligence surveillance and patrols have been stepped up there, he said.
According to River Police data, Bangladesh has approximately 7,500 kilometres of navigable waterways during the monsoon, shrinking to around 4,500 kilometres in the dry season. Of this, approximately 3,500 kilometres are regularly used by watercraft. Ensuring security across this extensive network of waterways remains a major challenge for the River Police.
Professor Muhammad Umar Faruk of the Department of Criminology and Police Science at Mawlana Bhashani Science and Technology University in Tangail told Prothom Alo that professional criminals had come to regard waterways as safe places to dispose of bodies.
After rape and murder, perpetrators deliberately and carefully dump bodies into rivers from secluded locations to conceal their crimes. Such incidents are increasing, he said. Rivers have also been used to dispose of bodies following politically motivated killings at various times.
Professor Umar Faruk said criminals assume that even if a body surfaces, it will have decomposed and drifted from one place to another with the current. They believe the victim will remain unidentified and be buried as an unclaimed person.
To solve such cases, investigators must conduct thorough inquiries, gathering circumstantial evidence and applying psychological insight, he said. The criminologist recommended identifying potential dumping sites, increasing law enforcement surveillance and installing CCTV cameras to prevent bodies from being disposed of in rivers.