Ghost in London

There were poltergeist activities in the flat in East London near the Bethnal Green Overground Station rail line. The spooky occurrence at the end of the year 1989 in December I was sleeping at a friend’s house in the building on the third floor in the flat of Three Colts Lane London E1 in Bethnal Green. 

I was a guest at a friend's place named Kasan Ali because his family was away on holiday in Sylhet, Bangladesh, he had one empty room in the flat, therefore, he invited me for a night especially to watch the TV series Godzilla together because at that time I didn’t have a TV at home and I was newly moved into my first flat in Princelet Street London E1 where I had all the furniture except the TV. 

After watching the TV programme and then talking about various things, it was very late at night, so I was tired and felt sleepy, ready to go to bed I took off my trousers and left them in the living room. My friend Ali asked me to give him all of my money. 

When I asked why he said; Temporarily somebody living in the flat as a lodger who might take the money from the trousers pocket. I started to laugh at what he was saying about the money because at that time I had just become unemployed and it was for the first time in my life I was signing for the dole and I had only ten pounds in the back pocket of my Waxman trousers. 

Ali said; Sorry to hear that you are unemployed but, in the past, you always had lots of money in your pocket. Then he said; Let me multi-lock the main door which is the key to multi-lock the lodger did not have and then he takes me to the room where I’m going to sleep. 

It was a nice double bedroom with a double-sided window. I went to the bed straight away and covered myself fully with the duvet because of the cold in the room and then he switched the light off and then he said goodnight to me, closed the door and he left. 

As soon as he left the room there was a sound like a very heavy storm like a typhoon around the room as well as the sound of a window opening hitting against the wall and then closing with the wind blowing like a cyclone loud again and again then the sound of the hurricane around the room which sounded very loud indeed as a violent hurricane. 

A few minutes later the sound of a very heavy footstep in the room and then a pause for a few seconds later the next footstep in the passage which was intense scary noises of eeriness’ continuously for a long period then again, the sound of the storm, as well as the hurricane around the room closing and opening sound of the windows, keep slamming against the wall and creating typhoon in the room.  

I was terrified inside out but, did not uncover myself from the duvet or dare to look into the room because I understood it was a haunted room and it was the poltergeist activities which is trying to scare me. I was concerned for the friend I thought I was not going to tell the story to him because it is his permanent flat and sometimes, he lives alone which may cause him anxiety and then I gradually fell asleep. 

I wake up in the morning wearing the trouser in the living room when trying to fix the back pocket of the trouser the money is missing which make me anxious. Then my friend started to call me from his room saying; Did you come to my room? I said; No. 

He said: How come I got the letter from Maizbhandari the Sufi order (where he is a disciple to Syed Shafiul Bashar Maizbhandari) then he went to the main door to check the multi-lock which was locked then he checked the lodger room he did not come home and then he comes to the living room to join me. 

Now he's saying; It is the Macdonald man who brought the letter to me in the room because it is the letter from my Baba Maizbhandar of Chittagong, Bangladesh. I said to him; Could you kindly describe who is the Macdonald man? He gave an affectionate smile and said; it is my polygamy who likes to eat the McDonald's. 

At that time, I started to say; What had happened to me last night in the room when he left and described the strange events to him. He said; Oh, he doesn't harm me anywhere sometimes he cleans the bath for me when I left unclean sometimes, I clean the bath for him when he left unclean, so we are related to each other like we got married to the same person.

Then I said to him; So, you are not scared of him anyway? He said; Look, like last night the lodger was not at home and it happens most of the time he stays in his friend's place where I live alone in the flat, I never feel disturbed by him although he slams the door loudly and steps heavily here and there. 

I said; Your Mcdonald's man took my ten pounds which is my halal money he has to give it back. He said; For that reason, I asked you to give me your money. I said don’t worry just kidding I just said it as a joke for a laugh I did not mind at all because it was the first time I ever had experienced a ghost in London.

In his flat, there is a long passage from the main door ninety-degree left and then again ninety-degree left and then ninety-degree right in the middle of the passage by the left side wall there is a toilet which has a tiny window no people can gain access to it and then further ahead of the kitchen where we were talking.

As I was sitting on the worktop facing the passage just in front of me my friend was standing and we had a conversation about what happened that night also, I could see the passage very clearly as we were discussing the matter suddenly, we heard the sound of a toilet flushing.

I straightaway ran to the toilet to check who was flushing the toilet now, there was nobody else in the house apart from the two of us. I saw the flush chain moving side by side and the water pouring into the comet with the continuity of motion which shocked me again in the broad daylight. 

Ali saying; Do not worry he is harmless all he likes is McDonald's because many times I found the bag of McDonald's in the bin or sometimes left it in the room. My lodger doesn't like McDonald's and neither I buy MacDonald's at home, now just two of us living in the flat who else can bring the McDonald's bags in the house apart from the Macdonald's man. 

Later in the evening, our peers were gathered in my flat where we regularly practise music in the evening. I told everyone the story of what happened at Kasan Bhai's flat with the Macdonald man. After the narration of the story, one of the friends named Nazim Uddin said; You could ask the Macdonald man to give you music because he took ten pounds advance from your pocket although you pay twelve pounds for your Tabla lesson I believe in the phantom power remember the jenny in the lamp.

On hearing Nazim Bhai's words everyone laughs louder at the Macdonald man. When everybody left my flat around midnight, I ventilated the whole house at once as it was my own routine to keep the windows a bit open to the kitchen and living room for circular fresh air.

I went to sleep in the bedroom some minutes later I heard the hurricane sound coming through from my living room window which I left open earlier for the fresh air and then the sound stayed in the passage like the same hurricane sound as it was in my friend's place, but this time is not as violent as the way it was in the friend's room. I straight away understood what it is because of the same typhoon sound as in the friend's room prior that night.

The typhoon ventured around the passage in the front of my bedroom door which is continuously rotating but not entering the bedroom. I said in my mind indicating to the typhoon; Hey Macdonald man I do not need the ten pounds from you or your help to gain the music and you can have the ten pounds as a gift from me and please leave me alone.

Surprisingly after that, the typhoon immediately stopped and then I went to sleep. I recently visited the flat to see my friend at the end of January 2020 and I asked him about the Macdonald's man. He said that the Macdonald man still lives in the flat and keeps making the random sounds of footsteps and slamming the doors as usual but did not harm him or his family anywhere.

That is the spirit of a man who cannot leave this flat and get stuck there for a reason. My friend has been living there with his family for over thirty years, many of his children were born there and some of these children got married and had their own children there in that flat where the Macdonald man did not harm them or their family. 

Once in 1995, I found a winning lottery ticket for ten pounds on the floor where we practised music. I then asked everyone who came to the flat to practise music or socialise if they had lost their lottery ticket no one claimed it.

Ghost of the Bayan Tree

We had been chasing the ghost herd of the animals whose asylum in the Bayan tree which is located on the east bank of Tilkidara (canal of Tilak). We encountered the herd of ghosts in the opened airfields in the full moonlit night. In the year 1985, I was on holiday staying in my village West Tilak also spelt Tilok, Shaharpara, and Jagannathpur of Sunamganj district in Sylhet division of Bangladesh. 

It was in the dry season when I was enjoying the vacation with my family members as well as my extended family, villagers and my childhood friends where we were playing football, and badminton and learned to play a card game called Black Maria which has become my favourite game. 

In the evening, we friends decided to play cards, Black Maria, at night at my friend Abdul Wadud’s house in his Baithak Ghar or Bangla Ghor (an extra house built to entertain the guests, socialising with the neighbours and friends) in the Muftir Chawk (isle mufti) the Shahjir-bari of Shaharpara. 

That night, as well as the weather, was very beautiful, and it was a full moon night with clear views. The players are my maternal nephew Jamal Miah, Abdul Wadud my uncle and Sunu Miah one of my cousins. They are all related to me as well as my childhood friends and we are almost the same age group. 

They all belong to the clan of Shahjir Goshty which is the clan descent from Shahjir-bari of Shaharpara proper. Before my family moved to West Tilak, they were living in the School-bari of Shaharpara and belonged to the clan of the Baglar Goshty which is the clan descent from the Baglar-bari of Shaharpara proper. 

At midnight, we had finished the games and I was ready to go to our home with Jamal. Jamal’s home was almost the same way although my home is twice as long in the distance as Jamal’s home. On the southern side of Muftir Chawk of Shahjir-bari and then to the east towards our homes. 

We were on our way home and Jamal was going through the Muftir Chawk of Shahjir-barir’s Gupat (in the dry season, the way for the animal to go to grazing field or paddy field for plough as well as the cow cart or horse carriage and in the flood season waterway for canoe and boat or even all kind of rafts) besides the canal on the southern bank. We were walking towards the east of Shahjir-bari which is our way home. 

At the end of the canal bank on the southern side, there is a field of Shahjir Goshty (called Shahjir-barir Bottiya) where their domestic animals gather before going to graze in a pasture in the hoar (wetland) where their domesticated livestock, such as cows in the water meadow and it is also the children’s playground. 

When we reached the ground, we saw a flock of sheep grazing there we immediately thought that these sheep belonged to the Chawk Tilakian farmers because in the whole Shaharpara, they don’t have that many sheep except some in Chawk Tilak aka Lalar Chawk as far as our bits of knowledge. 

The people of this area have rarely domesticated sheep because not many people like to eat them, so they prefer to be domesticating the goats which most people like to eat in these areas. Chawk Tilak is on the southern side of West Tilak football ground which is beside the southern side of the Tilkidara culvert bridge on the main dirt track road and which is almost on the way to our destinations.

Therefore, we thought of riding onto it to the end of the West Tilak football ground. So, there is one of the rams which is the dominant sheep in the flock with the extraordinary bigger size of rounded bighorn wrapped around with the tinsel in its horn and decorated with many artificial colours such as pink, green etc. 

I made a deal with Jamal that I was going to catch the bighorn ram and ride onto it to the end of the football ground of West Tilak and then straightaway go after the bighorn dominant ram for the catch. We both tried our best to catch two sheep but unfortunately, we were just less than a foot or some inches, missing the catch.

But we did not give up and kept chasing them laughing loudly and saying to each other, we are very young energetics and also footballers and, in reality, we could run faster than these sheep but, we could not catch them now, earlier, we thought it could be the easy catch and will be the free ride. 

After that, we changed our mind and started together running after the bighorn dominant ram for the catch, even though we two together tried very hard and used all our tractrix to catch it but failed again and again to catch the big horned. We ran after the flock of sheep to the very end of the northern side of West Tilak football ground where these sheep started to cross the canal called Tilkidara. 

On the opposite bank of west Tilak Tilkidara, there is a Banyan tree on the Eastbank where these sheep went onto and then vanished into thin air.  The location is on the northwest of Bosh-barir Bottiya (the field called Bos-bari’s field the northwest side of the field belongs to Hera Miah’s house who is in the clan of Shahjir Goshty) beside the southern side of Hera Miah’s house of West Tilak. To disappear completely in thin air in a mysterious way.

We began to tremble with apprehension for the first time and understood the reason why we couldn’t catch those sheep was that it was not the flock of sheep we were running after and we kept missing the catch by a few inches because it was the ghost herd of the animal which alongside mock about around with us for the durable time. 

Now I had Goosebumps, it freaked me out and accelerated my heartbeat. Jamal said to me, “Maternal-uncle (mama) do not look back, just go straight to your home.” Now I start to feel fear because I’m going to be alone and it is spooky where my home is in the distance from Jamal’s home and it is creepy to be alone on the way to my home through the paddy field of West Tilak beside the southern side of Abdul Hanan’s house, who is my uncle and he belongs to the clan of Baglar Goshty. 

Jamal’s home is immediately on the south side of the West Tilak football ground and he said; I’m not going to the shop on the main dirt track road of Shaharpara & Tilak now it is called Syedpur Road after the culvert bridge over the Tilkidara in the western side where one housing area newly building of Jamal’s paternal uncle Alais Miah of Shahjir Goshty from the paddy field immediate south of Jamal home. 

At that time there were two grocery shops one of which was Jamal and another one of Ala Miah of Chawk Tilak where Jamal slept at night. On the next morning at the Jamal shop at his bench which is the sitting area for customers at the front of his shop, Chawk Tilakian boys are sitting down tightly as to-gather. 

They saw me after I crossed the culvert bridge over Tilkidara, where together they started to laugh and then one of them said; Jamal Bhai did tell told us about 30 or 40 sheep you guys found in the field of Shahjir-barir Bottiya last night while they were grazing there, definitely, it’s not our sheep. 

Those are not our sheep for real I am saying seriously it was the devils' herd, we don’t have that many sheep in our whole of Chawk Tilak or to-gathered in the whole area of greater Shaharpara. At night all of our sheep were locked at home and we never kept our sheep outside at night because of the fear of foxes eating them. 

Now Jamal said to me, I straightaway went home last night but, what happened later in the night was our family servant was possessed by the ghost and he had been found in the morning under the Banyan tree where those sheep became invisible last night. 

His mouth was full of bubbles of foaming saliva found under the broken branches and twigs together with the leaves of a Banyan tree which covered full of his face. He was found and recognised by the servants of Hera Miah’s family in the early morning while they were going to be ploughing in the paddy field. 

Luckily my father has cured him of the possession of ghosts immediately. After he was cured when my dad asked him how he went there at night he answered that he didn’t know how he got there at night. After that he was so scared, this morning he left the job at our house and even the shop and ran back to his home leaving his half-month salary behind; said, Jamal. 

Jamal's father was a Hafiz (a term used by Muslims for people who have completely memorised the Qur'an) therefore he managed to cure him at the right time. We heard many petrifying ghost stories of the flock of sheep found in the night that could transform into different animals and it is called the herd of ghosts. 

In the past, from my elder generation, I heard lots of stories of the flock of sheep found at night which can be transformed into various animal forms to scare the people and it is the terrifying story of the ghost herd of the animal which I had been experienced asylums in the Banyan tree in the open airfield. 

Locally it is called Hozorpal (herd of the ghost in sheep form). These paranormal activities are experienced by many other people in the area and therefore the story of the Hozorpal was told from generation to generation.

Ghost in Bengal

We had been encountered by the group of the jinn over the culvert bridge in the full moonlit night. At the beginning of the flooding season in 1993 I was on holiday in my birthplace West Tilak also spelt Tilok at Akbar-Kutir is most commonly known as Master-bari of West Tilak, Shaharpara, Jagannathpur, Sunamganj, in Bangladesh where I stayed over eight months and at that time there wasn’t electricity supplied in the area. 

At night sleeping inside a concrete roof house in the summer, the sunshine generates lots of heat inside the house without using the manual fan as it is really difficult to go to sleep, especially for people who live in the United Kingdom because it is very hot inside of the house. In night walking under the trees within the boundary of the house or going on a canoe ride in the open-air field is a very good option for having fresh air and cooling yourself down then coming back home and going to sleep easily. 

On one of the nights with my younger maternal cousin brother, Razik Miah of Sarang-bari (marine house) which is also my mum’s house and belongs to the clan of Baglar Goshty of Shahrpara, which is my clan too and I walked into the main dirt track road to have some fresh air. The night was very special because the weather was moderate, and it was a moonlit night with twinkling stars on the horizon. They were fantastic which gave an awesome visual effect, as well as the on-ground, it was fully watery around the open field which is also giving the silvery shining sparkle effect on the water. 

We went through to the Shaharpara Bazar beside the southern side of School-bari and it was majestic throughout in every direction of the open airfield, so it was a wonderful feeling with the breezing wind. There was tranquillity around the area with the clear views as we did not use our torchlights and then walked towards the Novagaon or Nawagaon or Noyagaon of Syedpur Shaharpara Union Parishad, without any fear of being just two of us alone in the night and came too far away from our home without realising its late at night. 

Before we enter the Novagaon there is a tree scientific name: Diospyros malabarica English name: Gaab tree, Gaub tree, Malabar ebony, black-and-white ebony or pale moon ebony (in Bengali it is called Gab Gach and locally it is called Kosh Gach which are immature fruits are used to dye fishing nets and unripe leaves, as well as the immature fruits, were traditionally used to dye cloth black) on the left side of the dirt track road we went beside the tree and went onto the first culvert bridge over the canal of Dorarair Khal Novagaon where we sited on the southern side of the railing of the culvert bridge. 

Suddenly on our right, we saw some dogs coming towards us which is from the way of Diospyros malabarica tree marching in lines like an army on the dirt track road and then came to the culvert bridge and sit-downs in front of us with a few lines just like an audience in the theatre on the culvert bridge approximately around 12 dogs which are in the variety in colours. It is a small culvert bridge which is they almost covers the whole culvert bridge the way they are lined and seated. 

We were so scared we had to crab each other hands together tightly and sit on the railing withholding the torchlight on our hands and being ready in case they attacked, we had to self-defence. I said to Razik do not be fear of this, these are only the dogs, he said; Now it is almost midnight and also the flood season I never expected to see many dogs coming out at night as a group like that and they do not even bark, look at them they are creepy and demonic looks, the way they are looking at us without any fear of us, instead we cannot even eye contact to them because of their horrifying evil eyes. 

I don’t think we have that many wild dogs in our village together by the dry side of the main dirt track road. They all look dry none of them has dirt on their legs or even feet, the reason why I’m saying this is if these are the real packs of dogs then they must have been gathered from different houses and most of the houses are not connected to the main dirt track road as a dry dirt track as we know that. We knew some parts of the main dirt track road were still submerged by the water; Therefore, we had to walk through the dirt, mud and even through the water. 

Real dogs have to swim to come to the main dirt track road and also walk through the dirt, mud, and water as well as we did; said Razik. At this point, we lit two cigarettes and then I said to Razik that they could not do anything to us because we had the fire now and told him to avoid their looks hold the torch tightly and keep talking the way we were talking to each other and do not look at them directly. 

But we still feel the fear of the horror because of their behaviour which is not like the normal dogs the reason, is the way they were marching like Amy in a few lines too close to us and looked at us with frightening eyes it was horrible to look at their demonic eyes. They were listening to our conversation and looking at us for some minutes and then they went back to the same way they came onto the bridge. We feel the release of the terror, thanks to the almighty God "Allah (swt)" we are relieved from the horror of the ghost herd of the animal. These were the spirits of Jinn we were confronted at the culvert bridge in the full moonlit night. 

The Jinn can be transformed into dogs’ serpents or various animals and Jinn can appear in human form. We never have seen a pack of wild dogs come too close to people in Bangladesh, the reason is those were not the wild dogs. The people in Bangladesh have always beaten up wild dogs if they come too near to them. The dogs in Bangladesh are always frightened to come too close to people. Pet dogs always stayed home at night and guarded their owner's house throughout the night. The guard dogs never leave the boundary of their owner’s house, especially at night. 

Jinn (often al-jinn or djinn) are shape-shifting spirits made of fire and air with origins in pre-Islamic Arabia. Neither inherently good nor bad, Jinn are amorphous entities, able to take the shape of humans and animals, alike. Jinns are said to inhabit caves, deserted places, bamboo gardens, graveyards, trees, gardens, swamps and darkness. They marry, produce children, eat, drink and die but unlike human beings have the power to take on different shapes and are capable of moving heavy objects almost instantly from one place to another. The Qur'an mentions how the Prophet Solomon contrived to subjugate the Jinn and get them to perform tasks that required strength, intelligence and skill.

The Diospyros malabarica tree before entering Novagaon from Shaharpara Bazar is haunted and many people witness these paranormal activities there. We heard many paranormal stories of this Novagaon Diospyros malabarica tree where ghost asylum from our elder generation which I experienced. 

In the 16th century, there was a nearby battle called Vijayanagar which may be the spirits of dead soldiers. There is a village called Vijay Nagar or Vijayanagara means victor, which is in this neighbourhood.

Tree of Shaitan in Bangladesh

The shaitan or shaytan also spelt satan which made us lose our way in the night where as we were daunted by phantasmal. The Shaitan nir Gach (Tree of Shaitan) is between Shaharpara and Kurikiyar in Syedpur Shaharpara Union Parishad, Jagannathpur, Sunamganj, Sylhet, Bangladesh. It is the only tree in the Duwalabone or Dowalabon or Daulahbone (a paddy field) and Hapatibone (a paddy field). 

In the flood season, the tree gets surrounded by the water and in the dry season, there are swamps in the Dualahbone and Hapatibone. This is the only tree in both paddy fields and the paddy fields are joined together with the Western part of Daulahbone with the eastern part of Hapatirbone. The locals called it the tree of Shaitan which is the Shaitan asylum. 

It is the renowned tree of shaitan for all the seasons to mislead people’s way in the night which means, it makes the people lose their way and then keeps them wandering around the paddy fields until Fajr (the Muslim morning prayer) five minutes before sunrise. The event occurred in the year 1993. It was a moonlit night with moderate weather and at the end of the flood season in Bangladesh. 

Flooding normally occurs during the monsoon season from June to September and eighty per cent of the land of Bangladesh is floodplain. Once in the night, we were coming home from Sylhet on the late bus with my paternal nephew, Khasru Miah and myself, Khasru’s and my ages are not much different as I’m exactly one year older than him and literally our birthday is the six days different.

We came out of the bus and we were stuck in the middle of a road at Bhober Bazar of Mega Khali Nouka Ghat (boat harbour) where we missed the last ferry boat. From there we normally have to take a ferry boat to our home in the village of West Tilak which is also spelt, Tilok of greater Shaharpara. 

In the Nouka Ghat (boat harbour) there wasn’t any boat or canoe which made us anxious, so we wondered what we should do, and then I thought of a friend who lives there a little further on the western side of the Mega Khali Nouka Ghat whose name is Abdul Mossabir and he is one of my childhood friends from East London. We went to his house to seek any local boatman who could take us home. 

The friend said; I cannot allow my family servant to drop you at your home because the journey will take a long time and it almost getting late at night and all the servants are already sleeping. They have to go to work in the very early morning at the paddy field to plant Boro Rice. It is a crucial time because it is the end of the season in our area and they are urgently required in the early morning to be in the paddy field by the head of our family. 

Therefore, I arranged with one of my village men who can drop you at your home with my family boat which is specialised for carrying water hyacinth (its scientific name is Eichhornia in Bengali Kusurifena and locally it is called Fena) for cow feed in the flood reason and it is a weighty traditional Jagannathpurian style of shape longboat (Locally know as Fatami Nouw) with a length of around 33ft. 

So, it won’t be any problem on the way and then the men will come back to my home with the boat, said Mossabir. From Mossabir’s house, further, south-west where the boat is parked in the distance but, it is through the way of Shaharpara. So, we had to go to the boat on foot through the mud and muddy water and then start the journey in the immediate south to Shaharpara. 

The route to Shaharpara is straightforward although it is far in distance from the place where the boat was parked and the journey will take more than an hour ride to Shaharpara. Once we go to Shaharpara, then to the east to West Tilak which will be under an hour's journey through the Hapatirbone that lies in the northern part of Shaharpara. 

Hapatibone and Daulahbone are joined together, which is the roaming around the territorial sites of the haunting shaitan whose asylum is in the Tree of Shaitan. The western part of the Hapatirbone is the village of Syedpur and to that to the immediate east part of Syedpur is the village of Shaharpara. Both of the paddy fields are empty after harvesting and it is submerged in water which is becoming convenient for fishing. 

After the flood season, the land got fertilised and was ready for the next plantation of Boro rice. When we were in the middle of Hapatirbone we saw the village of Shaharpara in front of the boat in the south. Khasru said to the boatmen, Once we got near to the village, turn the boat to the left to Daulahbone which is the way to West Tilak. 

Immediately after that, we suddenly saw one of the unusually flat shapes, a very small boat approximately around 9ft in length. It came out in the middle of nowhere in front of our boat. In the middle of the boat, there is look-alike a pressure kerosene lamp but strangely, it is not powerful enough to that pressure kerosene lamp. The characters in the boat we cannot see clearly but it looks like a shadow of two short people. 

The two short shadowy characters are standing on both Golui (fore) of the boat one of which is rowing the boat with a bamboo stick and another one is kept in pole spearfishing. The character with the pole spear is continuously spearing the fish which were the sounds as well as the actions of the character. Actions we can see, very clearly from our boat and hear the sounds crystal clear. 

Their boat is not that far in distance from our boat, but we cannot see their faces because they are facing forward. The mysterious characters of these two short shadowy human form figures in the boat were doubtful to us. Their boat is kept crisscrossing at the front of our boat which is not far in distance and continuously hunting the fish with the prong pole spear. 

It was the season of all kinds of fishing, especially at the end of flood season when the water became shallow in the basin and the fish became clearer to target. Fishing gig with all kinds of prongs poles spear folks with the fire torches or pressure kerosene lamps or even the kerosene lamps in the night in around the paddy fields or by the side of canals and by the village’s sites, it is the common fishing ground for of villagers. 

Mossabir gave us one of the five batteries touch but unfortunately, the battery was too low and almost dying out, therefore, we couldn’t even see the boat in front of us clearly with our torchlight, although there it was a moonlit night that does not even help us visually to identify these characters. When they started to zig-zag very closely to our boat we could see very clearly their side which is shadowy faces, so we identified that they are ghosts which are in the form of shadowy human figures. 

The boatmen spotted the suspicious boat which kept crisscrossing in front of our boat and then he said to us, “Could you kindly ask what this boat is doing at the front of our boat which keeps distracting me.” When I asked them, who they were they did not answer me. After a long pause again I yelled, but there was still no answer. But the character continuously spearfishing on the water supposing his fishing in every hitting of his pole spear and doing it continuously which wasn’t a conventional way of fishing. 

Now our doubt is turning into reality the reason; you cannot find the fish one after another is because when you hit one fish, the next fish to that fish runs off in the distance. Therefore, you have to have a break in-between and then you hit your next target which will have some gap in time. We can hear random sounds created by these shadowy people from the boat, which is like talking but we do not understand a word of what they are saying to each other: 

Suppose it is the beginning of that poltergeist activity. Now we are getting to understand the reason why the lamp wasn’t powerful enough to see the characters in the boat. Why the boat is unusual in flat shape and very small in size which is the ancient monoxylon. The boat is made from a hollowed tree trunk which will be hundreds of years old. The lamp was placed in the lower-middle part of the dugout canoe instead of in the Golui (fore) which is the appropriate place for a lamp to see the fish more clearly. 

The causes of the character with pole spear continuously spearfishing did not answer my question. Khasru said; Sasaji (uncle) “is it the shaitan from the famous shaitan nir gach 'tree of shaitans' of Daulahbone?” It is the famous shaitan and renowned for misguiding the destination of people's ways and then directing them to get lost in the night and making them wander around the paddy fields until the Fajr. 

At that time, we started to laugh loudly and then I said to the shaitan; Hey you stupid shaitan why are you mocking around with us we are the locals and want to go to West Tilak to get away from us. The boatmen become very scared and said; Please do not mess around with them they are the ghosts who like to eat fish. I said to the boatmen; Do not fear these ghosts they cannot do anything to us don’t worry and do not feel afraid of these ghosts be calm and just row your boat steadily there are three of us in the boat. 

We heard lots of stories of this Shaitan is renowned for miss guiding way. The boatmen said: It is very late in the night now look around to the Hapatibone is there any light or anyone fishing boat there in the paddy field accept us in the whole of Hapatirbone. According to the boatmen, we looked around the paddy field in all directions where there weren’t any light or fishing boat shows. It is very strange, we cannot see, even Shaharpara which was in the views earlier when we were in the middle of Hapatirbone. 

Where, Shaharpara should be on the south of our boat, in fact, we cannot see any village apart from the huge water body around the boat. By this time, we are hearing lots of terrible sounds of turbulence, and it is getting louder than before which gave us the bad expression of atrocity. It is petrifying as we become frightened because of the horrible sounds and the dugout canoe is still in front of our boat crisscrossing. 

Khasru started to call him Mamu (maternal uncle) we heard a lot about your paranormal activities and we now accepted, please leave us alone and let us go home safely. The boatmen said; Tonight, we cannot go home, we will be wandering around the paddy fields all night, that is for sure! Khasru saying; These shaitans cannot do anything directly to us i.e. physically all they can do is lose our way home and make us wander around the paddy fields throughout the night. 

At this point, I just started to say loudly, “Hey shaitans we are going to Shaharpara and we are the descendants of Hazrat Shah Kamal (RA) leave us alone right now!” Then we can see Shaharpara very clearly on the east of our boat. The boatmen said; that Shaharpara was immediately south earlier whereas we are on the west of Shaharpara. The shaitan almost lost our way and directed us to the way of Syedpur. 

I’m not going home by myself tonight it is spooky, I’m already frightened of those shaitans' horrendous behaviour. You guys have to give me some space to sleep tonight at your house or somewhere on your house veranda where I can sit down until the end of the night. Then I said; We have enough space for you to stay at night, but I’m worried about the boat which was given to us with trust and it is my friend's family boat and also, it’s expensive too. 

Because we took a different route through Shaharpara instead of Dualahbone to East Tilak. The boat will not go to our home directly for parking it will end up in Tilkidara where we have to terminate the journey and then we have to walk through the main dirt track road of West Tilak to our home Master-bari, which will take less in time than predicted than our journey. He said I do not care I’m nerve-wracked by what happened I’m not going back home alone at night. 

Then I said to the boatmen; There is only one place to park the boat under the Tilkidara culvert bridge, but do you have the chain and lock for security. He said, No. I said what happens if someone steals the boat? The boatmen said: I will come back in the early morning after the Fajr Azan, which is not long away, and I hope in the meantime no one steals the boat. We heard lots of stories from our older generation that there were lots of fish in the area, especially in the flooded season when they never use a fishing net for catching fish.

Hundreds of years back, the Bengalis in the delta used to use the dugout boat (in Bengali called Donga) from a hollowed tree trunk which is also a dugout canoe in these areas, too. The shape of the local boat of this area is a bow, not the old flat-shaped dugout canoe and the new bow-shaped boat has been used in this area for many centuries now. These two shaitans are the very old ones whose presence in this area could be from the medieval period because they used the logboat which was used locally but many centuries ago. 

When I mention the name of Hazrat Shah Kamal (RA) aka Hazrat Shah Kamal Quhafa (RA) these shaitans vanished straightaway. Hazrat Shah Kamal (RA) was the Sufi saint who sought the audience of Hazrat Shah Jalal (RA) the patron saint of Sylhet who came in the early fourteenth century. I am the descendant of Shah Jamaluddin Qureshi who was the beloved youngest son of Hazrat Shah Kamal (RA) from Baglar-bari of Shaharpara proper. 

The paranormal stories of Shaitan nir Gach where the shaitan has asylum and is roaming around the Dualahbone as well as the Hapatibone in the night which has been experienced by many people from these areas. We encountered the paranormal activities of the shaitans of Dualahbone.

Ghost in Bangladesh

The abandoned school of Shaharpara where the ghost asylum

The ghost has loaded the school furniture into the longboat beside the abandoned high school of Shaharpara which was the old primary school of Shaharpara. I was studying in class one. The abandoned high school of Shaharpara is located in the Syedpur Shaharpara Union Parishad, Jagannathpur Upazila, Sunamganj District, Sylhet Division of Bangladesh by the main dirt roadside of Shaharpara in the heart of Kunabone (corner paddy field).

The school is a one-storey building and has four rooms abandoned as a shell, which are empty without any piece of furniture, windows or even doors. The high school was once the primary school of Shaharpara. It had been transformed into a high school at the beginning of the 80s when the new primary school of Shaharpara was erected beside the west of the old primary school of Shaharpara. 

It became abandoned at the beginning of the 90s when the new high school of Shaharpara was built behind the new primary school of Shaharpara in the heart of Kunabone. The high school was named Shaharpara Shah Kamal High School in honour of Hazrat Shah Kamal (RA) the fourteenth-century Sufi saint of Shaharpara. The event took place in the year 1993, it was in the middle of the flood season as I was walking through the main dirt road of Shaharpara towards west Tilak. 

It was a beautiful clear night sky with a full moon so I could see everything like it was daytime. The time was around midnight and I was going to my home. Master-bari aka Akbar-kutir of west Tilak also spelt Tilok from the Shaharpara Bazar where I was mingling with my village peers. The locality was silent around me as I was walking alone through the main dirt road of Shaharpara. In the tranquillity, there isn’t a sign of people in the surroundings where I was walking, and I could hear the sound resonance of my footsteps. 

I was going beside the abandoned high school, which is literally on my left, on the northern side of the Shaharpara main dirt road. As I was going through the dirt road, I saw a local traditional Jagannathpurian style shape of a farmer's longboat (locally called Fatami Nouw in Bengali it is called Nouka which is specialised for carrying cow feed such as water hyacinth its scientific name is Eichhornia and in Bengali, it is called Kusurifena locally it is called Fena) which is under the berry tree (its scientific name is Ziziphus also spelt Zizyphus, synonym jujube tree, in Bengali it is called Boroi Gach). 

The eastern side of the school building is fully loaded with furniture, full of school benches and tables. It was like a motion picture scene in a horror film. There is a strange-looking character that is an apparition of the human form. It was the ghost standing on the head of a boat with a rowing bamboo stick in his hand facing to the north. It is seemingly the direction of the boat head that is going to the northeast towards the west Tilak football ground. 

Because of this reason, the human form ghost figure stands with the rowing bamboo stick on the head of the boat in the southern part of the head of a boat and the boat cannot go to the south because the main dirt road of Shaharpara is blocked by the waterway. It was weird and freaked me out when I saw this extremely fearful scenario of terror. I was shaken, it gave me an eerie feeling, with extreme trepidation of this spooky scene of horror. 

My heartbeat doubled inside out because I was alone and was feeling apprehensive. After all, it was midnight and it is the right time for the ghost to be roaming around their haunting sites for facts, I knew the school is just an empty shell. The spooky occurrence of the horrific scene scared the hell out of me. This is the only abandoned school by the main dirt roadside, and there once I was a student of this school at the end of the 60s and the middle part of the 70s when I was studying class one and class two. 

Then again, the teacher sent me back to class one (the school was closed approximately for a year because of the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971) thus the academic education I had in the village school. I also heard from the locals this is the haunted school where the ghost asylum and many night-goers witness the phenomenal sequence of horror which I encountered. Many people in the locality had experienced these paranormal activities before me where the ghost embarked on a journey by to the boat with the loaded school furniture.

There are many beliefs from various cultures around the world. The soul and spirit of accidental or unnatural deaths exist with the ability to assist loved ones or harm the lives of those who commit a wrong. Such as revenging or avenging until the quest is fulfilled, the roams around for vengeance. Then after a long span of life, they have a second death.