Chattogram couple’s love marriage turned sour, then it ended in murder

Four years ago, in a whirlwind of romance, Yasmin and Jobair pledged their love, their futures seemingly entwined with hope and joy. Then, the narrative took a tragic and dark turn. Now Yasmin, a young woman from Chattogram, lies dead. Police suspect the hands that once held hers in marriage are the very ones that abruptly cut her life short.

Law enforcers recovered the body of 22-year-old Yasmin Akhtar from a locked house on Chan Mia Munshi Road in Chawkbazar Thana on May 23. Her husband Jobair Ullah, 32, and the couple’s daughter were missing.

After arresting Jobair, police said he had kept his wife from her family and friends and abused her. Yasmin had filed two cases in court to try and stop the abuse.

Police say Jobair killed his wife over the cases and because she tried to block his extramarital affairs.

Wali Uddin Akbar, chief of Chawkbazar Police Station, said: “Jobair killed his wife, took his three-year-old daughter, locked the house, and fled. He left the child at the home of his sister in Anwara Upazila before travelling to Cox’s Bazar’s Moheshkhali.”

Recently, Jobair returned to his sister’s house. When it was reported, law enforcers arrested Jobair in the Malghar Bazar area of Anwara Upazila. Jobair gave a confessional statement to the court on Monday under Section 164, OC Akbar said.

On the day that Yasmin’s body was found, Jobair called his landlord at 9am and told him that he had argued with his wife and beaten her the previous night. He asked the landlord to check up on her. He even told the landlord where he had kept the key to the house. The landlord then saw Yasmin lying on the bed with the sheets and pillows in disarray.

“The landlord informed police and police went to the scene, broke the lock, and recovered the body.”

Citing Yasmin’s family, OC Akbar said, “Yasmin met Jobair after she started work at a garment factory in the city. Four years ago, they married. The two of them have a three-year-old daughter.”

“Soon after they married, Jobair started beating Yasmin under various pretexts and became involved in extramarital affairs. This led to regular arguments between the two of them.”

In 2021, Yasmin filed a case against her husband to try and stop him from beating her, the police official said. However, the case was eventually dropped due to lack of prosecuting evidence. Yasmin filed another case in 2023. This angered Jobair.

Yasmin’s mother Fatema Begum says Yasmin called her at 9:15pm on May 22. She told her mother that Jobair had been beating her and threatening to kill her before she could testify in the case against him.

The OC said a court had ordered the couple’s daughter to be put in the care of her maternal grandmother Fatema.