Police have arrested Saiful Islam Tarek for the brutal killing of his wife, Shahida Akter Ripa, in Cox’s Bazar. The arrest was made in Dhaka with the assistance of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police, and the suspect was brought to Cox’s Bazar Sadar Model Police Station on April 15, 2026. Earlier, on April 11, police recovered a headless and handless female body from an abandoned pond in the Janar Ghona area of Jhilongja Union.

According to police, Saiful confessed during interrogation that he mixed sleeping pills with sweets to make his wife unconscious before slitting her throat with a knife. He then severed her head and wrists to conceal her identity and disposed of the body parts separately in a nearby pond and the Bakkhali River. Police said they recovered the murder weapon and remnants of the drugged sweets based on his confession.

Authorities are continuing searches in the Bakkhali River to recover the missing head and wrists of the victim, following the suspect’s statement.