Greek expatriate Afshar Mia, passed away on February 28 due to liver cancer in Greece. Decessed's brother, Erman Mia, completed all the procedures to bring his brother's body to Bangladesh.
The dead body arrived at Shantiganj upazila in Sunamganj on Friday. The overwhelmed relatives burst into tears after receiving the body.
The schedule of namaz-e-janaza was announced in the neighborhood mosques and all over the area. The house was filled with grieving guests. A grave was dug in the cemetery for burial. But in the end, the funeral prayer was not completed, and neither was the burial done.
The incident happened because another person's body was found in Greek expatriate Afshar Mia's coffin in Shantiganj. The bizarre incident took place in Damodhartapi village, East Pagla Union of Shantiganj upazila.
According to the police and Afshar Mia's family sources, the body that arrived at Afshar Mia's house at 3:18pm on Friday was a person's body named Jalal Mia, 52, hailing from Shilonpur village of Tongibari upazila of Munshiganj district.
He was also a resident of Greece. He died of a cardiac arrest. His body was supposed to arrive in the country on Monday (March 13). But due to mistakenly affixing the sticker with Afshar Mia's name on Jalal Mia's coffin, one's body arrived at another's address with the date changed.
Afshar Mia's body is still in Athens, Greece. Several members of Jalal Mia's family said that his body is scheduled to arrive in the country on Monday.
Afshar Mia's nephew Tofail Ahmad Kamran said, "I received the dead body of my uncle on March 10. The grave was dug and the schedule of funeral prayers was announced in the neighborhood mosques. When we removed the body from the coffin we found out that it was someone else's body in my uncle's coffin. Later, I informed the police and found out that the body was from Tongibari in Munshigan. The deceased's name is Jalal Mia.”
Shantiganj police station Officer-in-Charge (OC) Khaled Chowdhury said, “After receiving the news of this incident, I came to the spot immediately along with the force. After much effort, I found out the address of the late Jalal Uddin and talked to his family member.”
“The body will be handed over to the proper authorities after completing the legal process. The body of late Afshar Mia has not yet arrived. The problem was in Greece. His body is expected to arrive in the country on the 13th,” he said.