At canals and lakes, on pavements and beside hospitals, as well as inside abandoned buildings and isolated locations, unidentified bodies continue to be recovered from different parts of the capital. In some cases, injuries are found on the bodies, while decomposition can erase vital clues needed to establish a person’s identity.
According to figures from Anjuman Mufidul Islam, 400 unclaimed bodies were buried or otherwise given a final rite in Dhaka during the first eight months of this year. The figure has drawn attention to the recurring recovery of unidentified bodies across the capital, although it does not represent the total number of unidentified bodies recovered during the period.
The distinction is significant. A body whose identity is unknown when it is recovered is initially recorded as unidentified. Police then attempt to establish the person’s identity and locate relatives through available evidence and investigative procedures. If those efforts fail and the necessary legal procedures are completed, the body may eventually be classified as unclaimed and arrangements are made for burial or cremation.
Teenager’s body recovered in Jurain
The issue came into focus again last Friday when police recovered the partially decomposed body of a boy, believed to be around 16, from an abandoned public toilet beneath the Jurain Railway Bridge in the capital’s Shyampur area.
The body had suffered extensive decomposition, with bones visible around the head. An injury was also found on the forehead. Police believe the boy may have died between 15 and 20 days before his body was discovered.
As his identity could not be established, the body was sent to the morgue at Dhaka Medical College Hospital for post-mortem examination.
Shyampur police station officer-in-charge Nazrul Islam said the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) could not collect fingerprints because of the advanced decomposition. Police have also conducted publicity campaigns in the surrounding area in an attempt to identify the teenager, but no information about him has so far emerged.
The Jurain case is not an isolated incident. Several unidentified bodies have been recovered from different parts of Dhaka this year. However, there is no comprehensive government database publicly available showing the total number of unidentified bodies recovered across the capital.
According to figures compiled from published news reports, at least 11 cases involving unidentified bodies have been reported in the Shahbagh police station area alone this year.
400 bodies recorded by Anjuman
Anjuman Mufidul Islam’s figures show that 400 unclaimed bodies received their final rites between January and August.
Of these, 326 were buried at Rayerbazar Cemetery and 74 at Jurain Cemetery. The monthly figures were 30 in January, 59 in February, 52 in March, 46 in April, 56 in May, 67 in June, 42 in July and 48 in August.
This means the organisation handled an average of about 50 unclaimed bodies a month during the eight-month period.
The monthly figures, however, do not establish that unidentified deaths are increasing in Dhaka. Police officials have said they do not currently have evidence showing such an increase.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mosleh Uddin Ahmed said he did not have detailed information regarding the reported number of unclaimed bodies. DMP Additional Deputy Commissioner (Media) Md Akter Hossain also said police had no information confirming an increase in unclaimed bodies and that the matter required analysis.
Officials associated with Anjuman Mufidul Islam, meanwhile, said the organisation does not bury a body as unclaimed without police authorisation.
Decomposition makes identification harder
Identifying an unknown body becomes considerably more difficult as time passes. When a body is recovered soon after death, investigators may be able to use fingerprints, National Identity Card information, mobile phones, clothing and other personal belongings to establish identity.
But decomposition can destroy or weaken many of these clues. Fingerprints may no longer be recoverable, while personal belongings may be missing or damaged. Investigators may then have to rely on DNA testing, CCTV footage, records of missing people and descriptions provided by relatives.
Those sources are not available in every case. A body found after several days or weeks in an isolated location can therefore present significant challenges for investigators.
The Jurain case illustrates one such difficulty. Because of the condition of the teenager’s body, fingerprints could not be collected, leaving investigators to depend on other evidence to establish his identity.
A wider social and investigative issue
Sociologist Dr Touhidul Haque, an associate professor at the University of Dhaka’s Institute of Social Welfare and Research, said unidentified bodies should not be viewed solely through the lens of law enforcement.
He pointed to factors such as weakening family and social ties, homelessness, isolation and the loss of contact between individuals and their families as issues that may also be connected to cases involving unidentified people.
At the same time, investigators need to establish whether a death resulted from a criminal act, including possible homicide, he said. The circumstances surrounding each death therefore require careful examination rather than treating all unidentified bodies as cases of the same nature.
Haque also stressed the need to strengthen police technological capacity for identification and improve coordination among agencies. Better information-sharing between databases of missing people, hospitals, local administrations and law enforcement agencies could help investigators connect unidentified bodies with missing-person reports more efficiently.
The 400 unclaimed bodies recorded by Anjuman Mufidul Islam therefore provide an indication of the number of unidentified people whose identities could not ultimately be established through the relevant process. They should not, however, be treated as a definitive count of all unidentified bodies recovered in Dhaka during the first eight months of the year. A consolidated official record would be needed to determine the broader scale and pattern of such cases across the capital.
