Jerin Mir, a medical student from Scarborough, died in Bangladesh after she was hit by a train Saturday. She is pictured here with a man identified on Facebook as her boyfriend.
TORONTO – The young couple went for a walk along the train tracks in Dhaka, that much is clear, but how and why 20-year-old Jerin Mir ended up dead remains a mystery.
The Scarborough woman was killed Saturday in Bangladesh, where she had been studying medicine for the past two years, reported the Toronto Star.
A man who authorities and friends have identified as Mir’s boyfriend is being held by police in Bangladesh after her family accused him in her death.
Mohiuddin Sharan has been in custody since Sunday, but as of Tuesday had not been charged. Under the country’s legal system, authorities can arrest an alleged offender when a citizen files a “murder case.” It is then up to the courts to decide whether the accused will be held during an investigation.
A judge in the capital city of Dhaka approved a three-day detainment for Sharan on Monday after Mir’s family filed a case.
The accusations against the young woman’s boyfriend come as protests continue in India over the status of women in the country, sparked by the gang-rape and murder of a 23-year-old student on a bus in December.
Though early news reports out of Bangladesh said Mir was hit by a train, the woman’s family members say they believe she died of severe head injuries after being slammed against the side of a slow-moving locomotive, but was not actually hit by it.
Her parents, who grew up in Bangladesh and moved to Canada before their three children were born, are awaiting the results of an autopsy they hope will provide more details on the cause of her death.
According to family and friends, Mir met Sharan in Bangladesh through a friend from the Medical College for Women in Uttara, a suburb of Dhaka, where she was pursuing her dream of becoming a doctor. Mir and her boyfriend made their romance official on Facebook last September, declaring themselves “in a relationship.”
In some news reports from Bangladesh, the boyfriend is identified as Kazi Mohiuddin Sharan and Kazi Mohiuddin Sharon.
In an email to a friend in Canada, Mir said she began hanging out with Sharan and “the next thing (I) knew he was introducing me as his girl to his friends.” She described her boyfriend as charming, sweet, romantic and hilarious. He could also be “a little insecure,” “protective” and “a bit aggressive.” His smoking bothered her, but she let it go.
Mir also said he was “Bengali from UK,” had recently finished studies in the United Kingdom and was now living with his parents back in Bangladesh.
According to family members, Mir, who was born Munjerin Arabin Jerin Mir but goes by the shorter Jerin Mir, visited an aunt Saturday afternoon and left the relative’s home at about 4:30 p.m. Soon after, she and Sharan went for a walk near a rail station behind the Radisson hotel in Dhaka.
Sometime around 8 p.m., Sharan rushed into a local hospital, carrying Mir in his arms. Family members said she was bleeding from the head and died soon after.
According to multiple news reports, Sharan later told journalists in Bangladesh that Mir had been hit by a train. Authorities were not able to confirm this.
Mir was born in Toronto and studied at Lester B. Pearson Collegiate Institute. She was in her second year of medical studies and hoped to become a family doctor. Friends said Mir had been uneasy about going back to Bangladesh to continue her studies this past fall.
Kaikobad Mir flew to Bangladesh with his wife earlier this week and buried his first-born child Tuesday in the village he grew up in. He said thousands came to the funeral to support his family.
Mir and his wife have been pleading for Canadian authorities to get involved in the investigation. The father sobbed on the phone as he described the pain of losing a child.
“Nothing in the whole world is going to bring my daughter back,” he said. “But I want justice for her.”
Courtesy Toronto Star
