Three prison inmates, including two under-trial detainees and one convicted prisoner, passed away within hours of each other at Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) on Sunday morning. The fatalities occurred either during ongoing hospital treatment or shortly after the individuals were rushed to the emergency department from correctional facilities.
The deceased have been identified as 58-year-old under-trial detainee Abul Bashar, 62-year-old under-trial detainee Abdul Qayyum, and 48-year-old convicted prisoner Shahadat Hossain Liton. Inspector Md Habibur Rahman, in-charge of the DMCH police outpost, confirmed all three deaths and stated that the bodies have been transferred to the hospital morgue for mandatory post-mortem examinations.
The morning’s events began at approximately 7:25 am when prison guard Shahid and an escort team brought Abul Bashar to the DMCH emergency room from Dhaka Central Prison in Keraniganj after his physical condition severely deteriorated. Following preliminary medical evaluations, duty doctors declared him dead on arrival. Records indicate Bashar, the son of the late Sekandar Ali from Kachua upazila in Chandpur district, was being held in custody regarding a case filed under the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act.
Roughly an hour and a half later, at 9:05 am, prison guard Hemayet Hossain and fellow officers arrived at the emergency unit with Abdul Qayyum, who had also fallen acutely ill whilst incarcerated. Attending physicians examined Qayyum and similarly pronounced him dead on arrival. Qayyum, a native of Chauddagram upazila in Comilla district and son of Dudu Miah, suffered a sudden medical crisis, though the exact clinical cause remains unspecified pending official laboratory findings.
Unlike the two detainees brought in dead, convicted prisoner Shahadat Hossain Liton passed away at 8:45 am whilst already admitted to a medical ward. Liton, son of the late Abdul Kader from Pabla village in Khulna’s Daulatpur area, had been suffering from ailments that required specialized intervention. He was transferred from prison custody and admitted to DMCH on 28 August, undergoing continuous treatment until his condition succumbed to illness after ten days under hospital care.
Authorities emphasized that despite occurring on the same morning, the three fatalities are distinct incidents with no shared operational link. Standard custodial protocols require an executive magistrate to oversee inquest reports alongside full autopsies before bodies are formally released to surviving family members. The management of aging and chronically ill inmates presents a constant medical challenge for Bangladesh’s penal system, relying heavily on tertiary facilities such as DMCH for emergency care. Medical reports following the completed post-mortems will form the basis of the official police inquiry.
