A tranquil Friday afternoon turned into a scene of distress in the Chhagalnaiya sub-district of Feni after a group of children playing near a local pond stumbled upon the floating body of an unidentified man.

The incident occurred near the Shaheed Minar, adjacent to the Court Ground in Chhagalnaiya. A group of local children had been playing games in the vicinity when their ball accidentally strayed into the nearby government-owned pond. As the children attempted to retrieve it by parting the thick layer of water hyacinth covering the surface, they uncovered the partially decomposed corpse. Shocked by the discovery, the children alerted nearby residents, who immediately raised the alarm and notified the local police station.

Officers from the Chhagalnaiya Police Station arrived promptly at the scene to secure the area and retrieve the body. Preliminary physical assessments suggest that the individual died approximately six to seven days prior to the discovery. Due to prolonged exposure to the water, the corpse was severely decomposed and swollen, making immediate visual identification impossible.

Following standard investigative protocol, officers prepared an inquest report at the scene before transferring the body to the morgue at the Feni 250-Bed General Hospital for a detailed post-mortem examination.

Investigators have initiated comprehensive efforts to ascertain the identity of the deceased and establish the circumstances surrounding his death. A specialised unit from the Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) Feni office was dispatched to the hospital morgue on Friday night to conduct biometric identification. However, advanced tissue decomposition on the fingertips prevented biometric scanners from capturing usable fingerprints.

Speaking on the matter, the Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Chhagalnaiya Police Station, Md Abu Taher, stated that forensic teams have successfully collected DNA samples for preservation and future matching. In tandem with forensic analysis, law enforcement authorities are pursuing several operational leads. Officers are currently auditing missing person reports filed across the district over the past week and examining footage retrieved from closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras located around the Court Ground and Shaheed Minar areas. Authorities have also circulated notices across digital and social media platforms, appealing to the public for any information regarding individuals who may have gone missing recently.