Mystery Shrouds Corpse Theft in Indian Village
Agartala, Tripura (India):
The mysterious removal of a body from a Muslim burial ground has triggered tension in minority-dominated Sonamura subdivision of West Tripura.
Police have launched an investigation into the mystery following an FIR filed by one Munir Hossain of Srimantapur village, bordering Comilla district of Bangladesh.
Giving details, Sonamura sub-divisional police officer (SDPO) Sanjay Roy said a youth of Srimantapur village, Akhtar Hossain, had died after being struck by lightning on September 27.
His family buried the body in the community burial ground outside the village on the edge of the border with Bangladesh.
But on Friday, when Akhtar’s parents, Munir and Julekha Hossain, went to visit the burial site for performing religious rites, they found the earth dug up and the body missing. 
Munir’s FIR filed with the Sonamura police station, however, did not name any person as suspects in the case.
The SDPO said shortly after Akhtar’s death, three unknown persons from across the border met his parents and offered to pay Rs 3 lakh in exchange for the body, but they refused to oblige.
“If the body has been taken across the border, we are helpless, but our search operation is on,” Roy said. He added that according to superstition among local Muslims, the bones of a person who died in lightning developed a magnetic force that was highly valued.
“I have been told by many local Muslims that bones of persons who die in lightning are sold at a high price to buyers in Europe though it is impossible to verify the authenticity of the version,” Roy said.
During the past three years, a number of such bodies or skeletons have been stolen from Muslim burial grounds in Srimantapur, Kulubari and Durganagar areas under Sonamura subdivision, the Kurti area under Dharmanagar subdivision of North Tripura and even from Indranagar area north of Agartala.
“A number of cases has been reported to police, but in no case have the police been able to nab the culprits or recover the skeletons,” Akbar Hossain, an office-bearer of the state Wakf board, said.
Initially, it was suspected that tantriks were behind the removal of the bodies or skeletons, but this has proved to be a “totally wrong idea”.
“There is no tantrik as such in Tripura and by now we are sure that an organised trans-border gang is engaged in smuggling bodies and skeletons for reasons best known to them. We are seriously looking into the matter,” a police source said.
Oct. 3, 2005
Calcutta Telegraph, India
Agartala, Tripura (India): The mysterious removal of a body from a Muslim burial ground has triggered tension in minority-dominated Sonamura subdivision of West Tripura.
Police have launched an investigation into the mystery following an FIR filed by one Munir Hossain of Srimantapur village, bordering Comilla district of Bangladesh.
Giving details, Sonamura sub-divisional police officer (SDPO) Sanjay Roy said a youth of Srimantapur village, Akhtar Hossain, had died after being struck by lightning on September 27.
His family buried the body in the community burial ground outside the village on the edge of the border with Bangladesh.
But on Friday, when Akhtar’s parents, Munir and Julekha Hossain, went to visit the burial site for performing religious rites, they found the earth dug up and the body missing.
Munir’s FIR filed with the Sonamura police station, however, did not name any person as suspects in the case.The SDPO said shortly after Akhtar’s death, three unknown persons from across the border met his parents and offered to pay Rs 3 lakh in exchange for the body, but they refused to oblige.
“If the body has been taken across the border, we are helpless, but our search operation is on,” Roy said. He added that according to superstition among local Muslims, the bones of a person who died in lightning developed a magnetic force that was highly valued.
“I have been told by many local Muslims that bones of persons who die in lightning are sold at a high price to buyers in Europe though it is impossible to verify the authenticity of the version,” Roy said.
During the past three years, a number of such bodies or skeletons have been stolen from Muslim burial grounds in Srimantapur, Kulubari and Durganagar areas under Sonamura subdivision, the Kurti area under Dharmanagar subdivision of North Tripura and even from Indranagar area north of Agartala.
“A number of cases has been reported to police, but in no case have the police been able to nab the culprits or recover the skeletons,” Akbar Hossain, an office-bearer of the state Wakf board, said.
Initially, it was suspected that tantriks were behind the removal of the bodies or skeletons, but this has proved to be a “totally wrong idea”.
“There is no tantrik as such in Tripura and by now we are sure that an organised trans-border gang is engaged in smuggling bodies and skeletons for reasons best known to them. We are seriously looking into the matter,” a police source said.
Oct. 3, 2005
Calcutta Telegraph, India
