India’s Border Security Force (BSF) on Friday handed over the body of a Bangladeshi man, found hanging from a tree just across the border in Meghalaya, to Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) through the Utma border.

The deceased was identified as Zakaria Ahmed, 25, son of Alauddin from Lama village in Uttar Ronikhai union of Sylhet’s Companiganj upazila. He worked as a labourer and got married just four days before his death.

“The body was recovered around 9:30pm on Thursday (June 19) through the Pinarsala Police Station in Meghalaya, India. Later, BGB handed over the body to Companiganj police for legal procedures, said Officer-in-Charge (OC) Uzair Al Mahmood of the Companiganj Police Station.

Lt Col Nazmul Haque, commanding officer of BGB’s Sylhet 48 Battalion, said the incident occurred inside Indian territory, so Bangladeshi police could not access the location. “Due to bad weather, Indian police also faced delays in reaching the scene. After the post-mortem, the BSF handed over the body to us,” he said.

Preliminary investigation suggests that Zakaria may have died by suicide due to personal reason, said the BGB official.

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Local residents said they saw a body hanging from a tree on the Indian side of the border near Lama village, about half a kilometre from Zakaria’s home and close to border pillar 1257.

After being informed by locals, BGB and Bangladeshi police alerted BSF and Indian authorities, who later recovered the body.

Zakaria’s uncle Gias Uddin filed a general diary (GD) with Companiganj police following the incident.

Zakaria’s father Alauddin said, “My son got married on Monday. There was no family dispute. We had dinner together on Wednesday night. On Thursday morning, we found him missing. Later, we were informed that his body was found hanging from a tree across the border.”