Bangladesh police investigate death of Maldivian student for fifth time

Bangladesh police have reopened the investigation into the death of Raudha Athif, a 21-year-old Maldivian medical student who was found hanged in her room at Islami Bank Medical College in Rajshahi, Bangladesh, last March, reports local media.

The case was reopened under a court warrant for the fifth time on December 23, according to Bangladesh newspaper The Daily Star .

The investigation comes after Bangladesh police concluded in August that Athif had committed suicide.

Athif’s father Mohamed, who is also a doctor, has rejected all reports confirming the death as suicide, noting there were finger marks on her neck. He submitted a no-confidence motion into the CID’s final report in late November.

After the student’s body was found, her family speculated to international media that she was murdered for wearing un-Islamic clothing.

Athif’s brother, Rayyan, told British tabloid The Sun at the time that he believes his sister’s death was staged as a suicide.

“There have been a series of murders in Bangladesh which have been staged to look like suicides and Islamic extremists have been suspected to be behind these atrocities,” he said. “We’ve seen her bruised body, her tightly held fists and hand marks on her neck as if somebody strangled her. When we raised these issue with the police, they dismissed it.”

“Assisted by senior CID officials, I examined all the issues raised by Raudha’s father and found that those were raised due to factual mistakes,” Asmaul Haque, the investigating officer, was quoted as saying by The Daily Star.