A wedding celebration in Gaibandha’s Gobindaganj upazila took a dramatic turn after police arrested a man accused of stealing a cow from a neighbour’s farm and slaughtering it to prepare the customary wedding feast. Authorities confiscated the carcass, hide, head, and hooves from the scene, whilst an investigation is underway to track down the remaining suspects involved in the incident.

The crime unfolded during the early hours of Saturday between the villages of Paschim Masta and Barna Chandra Sekhar in the Kamardaha Union. According to the official police complaint filed by local resident Shahidul Islam, he had secured his black crossbred cow—valued at approximately 120,000 Bangladeshi Taka—inside his farm enclosure on Friday evening. Upon waking at around 3:00 am, Mr Islam discovered that the main padlock of his courtyard gate had been broken open and the shed door was swinging loose.

Realising the animal was missing, Mr Islam immediately rallied neighbours to organize a search party. Tracking fresh hoof prints through adjacent agricultural fields, the group followed the trail directly to a residential property in the neighboring village of Barna Chandra Sekhar. There, the search party caught the suspects red-handed in the middle of butchering the freshly slaughtered cow.

A confrontation ensued when the victim and his relatives confronted the perpetrators. Tensions escalated rapidly, resulting in an attack with a sharp weapon aimed at the head of Mr Islam’s nephew, Anarul. He managed to fend off the blow with his arm, sustaining severe lacerations to his right hand. Local residents quickly arranged an auto-rickshaw to transport the injured man to the Gobindaganj Upazila Health Complex, where he remains under medical treatment.

Local sources revealed that the alleged culprit, Rafiqul Islam, had arranged the slaughter to cater for the Boubhat—a traditional post-wedding reception hosted by the groom’s family—for his son, Sohan, who had married the previous day. While several accomplices managed to flee the property during the initial commotion, police arrived shortly after to take Rafiqul Islam into custody and seize the butchered remains as evidence.

The Officer-in-Charge of Gobindaganj Police Station, Mahfuz Alam, confirmed that a case is currently being processed and law enforcement personnel are conducting raids to apprehend the remaining individuals connected to the theft and assault.