'Missing' Rahima Begum of Khulna Found Alive in Faridpur: Police

Rahima Begum of Khulna's Daulatpur, who had been missing since August 27, was found alive in Faridpur, police said.

Khulna Metropolitan Police (KMP) found her alive in Faridpur's Boalmari at around 10:45 pm Saturday, KMP Deputy Commissioner (North) Molla Jahangir Hossain told UNB.

"A team of police conducted a drive in Syedpur village after receiving information that Rahima had gone into hiding there. They are now on their way to Khulna," Molla Jahangir added.

The development comes after 52-year-old Rahima's elder daughter Moriom Mannan, whose campaign to find her mother for almost a month touched the nation, suspected that the body of an unidentified woman buried in Mymensingh recently was her mother's.

Aslo, Moriom, in a Facebook post, said they had put up "missing" posters in Khulna city, hoping that they would get their mother back.

On August 27, Rahima went missing after she had left her home in the Banikpara area of Doulatpur at 10pm to bring water.

Her daughters found her sandals, scarf and water pot. A newer pair of sandals though, had gone missing and that fuelled speculation that she had left home on her own.

The family first filed a complaint with the police, based on which the law enforcement lodged a first information report (FIR) against some people over Rahima's disappearance.

On September 13, after Rahima remained missing for 17 days and police failed to find her, her younger daughter Aduri Akter appealed to a Khulna court to transfer the case to the Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI), Moriom said.

Family members said Rahima often received death threats from some of her neighbours whom she had sued in 2019 over a land dispute.