Dear readers, welcome back.
The incident I’m about to share was sent to us by a man named Rafique.
Although he currently lives in Narayanganj, his family home is in Saheberhat, Kadipur, Begumganj Upazila, Noakhali, Bangladesh.
And unlike many of the stories we share, this one happened directly to Rafique himself.
It began on the night of January 13, 2018.
It was a little after 11:00 p.m.
Rafique had been returning home from Kutub's Hat toward Saheberhat.
He had purchased two large Hilsa fish and was carrying them in a plastic bag.
The journey from Kutub's Hat to Saheberhat usually took around thirty minutes on foot.
But that night, the road was almost completely deserted.
There were no vehicles.
No streetlights.
On both sides of the paved road were trees, vegetation, and empty fields.
Rafique was walking quickly because it was already late.
The only light he had was the flashlight on his mobile phone.
The silence around him was so intense that even the sound of his own footsteps made him uneasy.
Then, after walking for a while…
He suddenly thought he heard another set of footsteps.
Someone seemed to be walking behind him.
At first, Rafique felt relieved.
He thought,
At least there's someone else on the road.
He stopped.
And strangely…
The other footsteps stopped too.
There was complete silence.
Rafique wondered if perhaps the sound was simply an echo of his own footsteps, especially because it was a cold winter night.
So he started walking again.
And once again…
He heard the footsteps.
This time, he turned around.
There was nobody there.
As far as the faint light from his phone could reach, there was no sign of another person.
Nothing.
Just an empty road…
The sound of a cold wind moving through the trees…
And complete silence.
Rafique tried to convince himself that he had imagined it.
So he continued walking.
But after a few more minutes, something changed.
He began to feel a strange sensation throughout his body.
A chill ran down his spine.
And this time, he was almost certain.
Something was following him.
By then, he had reached the area near the Noa Bari Bridge.
He stopped near the bridge.
And suddenly, he realized that he was extremely thirsty.
He needed some water.
And that was when something even more frightening happened.
The flashlight on his mobile phone suddenly went out.
Then the screen went black.
Rafique immediately tried turning it back on.
But nothing happened.
The strange thing was…
His phone still had plenty of battery.
There was no reason for it to shut down.
Now he was standing in almost complete darkness.
A cold stream of air passed around him.
He repeatedly pressed the power button.
For a moment, the screen came back on.
But almost immediately…
It went dark again.
Then—
Footsteps.
This time, Rafique clearly heard someone walking behind him.
Slowly.
Step by step.
The sound seemed to come from dry leaves scattered beside the road.
But he knew there was nobody there.
He gathered his courage and slowly turned around.
Nothing.
No one.
Then suddenly…
He heard a sound directly above his head.
A long, slow exhale.
It felt as though someone was standing extremely close to him, right above his head, breathing warm air onto him.
Rafique froze.
His throat went completely dry.
His entire body became numb with fear.
He wanted to run.
He wanted to get away from that place immediately.
But his legs felt incredibly heavy.
He couldn't move.
Then, suddenly—
A powerful gust of wind rushed past him.
And at that exact moment…
His phone screen suddenly lit up.
Rafique didn't wait another second.
He immediately started walking as fast as he could.
He turned on the flashlight again.
This time, it worked.
And the battery level was still normal.
So why had the phone suddenly stopped working before?
He had no answer.
But he didn't have time to think about it.
He just wanted to get home.
Then he noticed something else.
The footsteps behind him had disappeared.
But…
Something seemed to be walking beside him.
Rafique stopped.
Immediately, the sound stopped too.
He started walking again.
And this time, he felt it very clearly.
Something was walking directly beside him.
On his right.
He glanced toward the side.
And what he saw terrified him.
There was a pitch-black figure walking alongside him.
It had the shape of a human being.
But there was something horribly wrong with it.
He couldn't see its face.
Its entire body looked darker than the surrounding night.
It almost looked like a living shadow.
Rafique gathered enough courage to look at it for a brief moment.
And suddenly…
The figure seemed to dissolve into the darkness.
It was gone.
Rafique thought,
Maybe it's finally gone.
But he was wrong.
Because immediately afterward…
The plastic bag containing the Hilsa fish in his hand suddenly jerked violently.
It felt as though someone had grabbed the bag and pulled it hard.
Rafique stepped backward in terror.
And then he heard a deep voice.
A voice that seemed to come from somewhere in the darkness.
It said:
“These fish are mine.”
Then again…
“These fish are mine.”
The voice was deep.
Heavy.
Almost like a growl.
But what terrified Rafique most was that it didn't sound like the voice of one person.
It seemed as though many voices were saying the same words at the same time.
These fish are mine.
These fish are mine.
The plastic bag was still shaking in Rafique's hand.
Then it felt as though something pulled it again.
This time, not quite as violently.
Rafique panicked.
He suddenly released his hand.
The plastic bag dropped to the ground.
And at that exact moment…
Everything became silent.
Completely silent.
The wind stopped.
The trees stopped rustling.
Even the sounds of the night seemed to disappear.
It felt as though the entire world had suddenly gone quiet.
Rafique stood there, unable to move.
He no longer had the strength to continue walking.
Then…
Beside the plastic bag…
The black figure appeared again.
It had vanished moments earlier.
But now it was back.
This time, Rafique could see it more clearly.
It looked almost exactly like a human being.
But there was no face.
No eyes.
No nose.
No mouth.
Nothing.
Just a completely smooth, featureless head.
Slowly…
The shadowy figure bent down.
It reached into the plastic bag.
And then—
In a single movement—
It disappeared.
Rafique stood frozen.
He looked down at the bag.
The two Hilsa fish were gone.
Completely gone.
There was nothing inside.
For several moments, he couldn't even understand what he had just witnessed.
Had he really seen it?
Was it some kind of hallucination?
Or had something truly been standing there?
He didn't know.
But his hand was freezing cold.
It felt almost numb.
The same hand that had been holding the bag moments earlier felt as though it could barely move.
The plastic bag was still lying on the ground.
But the fish were gone.
After some time, by the mercy of Allah, Rafique managed to regain enough strength to move.
And then he ran.
He ran all the way home.
Nothing else happened along the way.
When he finally entered his house, he didn't tell anyone what had happened.
It was almost midnight.
He quietly went to bed.
But the moment he closed his eyes, he felt something strange.
His entire body felt extremely heavy.
He wanted to sleep.
But he couldn't.
Eventually, he fell asleep.
And then he had a dream.
In the dream, everything around him was covered in thick fog.
There was no light.
No clear path.
No idea where he was.
Just a dark, misty environment.
Then…
The same pitch-black figure appeared in front of him.
But this time, it wasn't standing still.
It was slowly walking toward him.
Rafique began stepping backward.
The figure continued approaching.
He kept moving back…
Until suddenly…
He realized he couldn't go any farther.
There was a wall behind him.
He was trapped.
Then he heard that same terrifying voice again.
“These fish are mine.”
The voice was so powerful and frightening that Rafique screamed inside the dream.
But the strange thing was…
He didn't only scream in the dream.
He screamed in real life too.
His scream woke him up.
Rafique opened his eyes.
He was lying in his own bed.
His entire body was covered in sweat.
His heart was pounding violently.
But there was something else.
Something even more disturbing.
The room had no air movement.
It was winter.
The doors and windows were closed.
The fan was switched off.
Yet…
The curtain was moving.
Not gently.
It was moving as though a powerful fan were blowing directly against it.
Rafique somehow survived the rest of that night.
But the nightmare didn't end there.
For the next seven or eight nights, he experienced the same dream.
The same black figure.
The same voice.
And the same words:
“These fish are mine.”
Sometimes the voice would say:
“Don't bring me fish anymore.”
Other times, it seemed to demand that he bring fish.
Every night, the figure would appear.
Rafique would try to escape.
But his body wouldn't move.
And within only a few days, his physical condition began to deteriorate badly.
He became noticeably thinner.
He lost his strength.
He was constantly exhausted.
His appetite disappeared.
He frequently felt dizzy.
His mother, father, grandmother, and brother all noticed the sudden change.
His mother eventually asked him,
“Have you developed some serious illness? How did your health deteriorate so quickly?”
At first, Rafique said nothing.
He thought perhaps it was all in his imagination.
But eventually, he realized this was not normal.
Something was seriously wrong.
So one afternoon, he finally called his family together and told them everything.
He told them about buying the two Hilsa fish at Kutub's Hat.
He told them about the footsteps.
The Noa Bari Bridge.
The black figure.
The mysterious disappearance of the fish.
The strange voice.
And the nightmares that had continued night after night.
His mother and grandmother were horrified.
They reportedly said,
“Why didn't you tell us earlier? This is not something to ignore.”
The family immediately took Rafique to a nearby mosque called Komoruddin Bepari Bari Jame Mosque.
They brought the Imam to speak with him.
The Imam looked deeply into Rafique's face for a while.
Then he said,
“I understand. Something is following you. This isn't happening only in your dreams. According to what you've described, it may also be affecting you in the real world.”
Rafique then told him the entire story from beginning to end.
The Imam listened carefully.
He analyzed every detail.
After hearing everything, he remained silent for a while.
Then he told Rafique,
“Don't be afraid. Insha'Allah, with Allah's permission, everything will be fine.”
The Imam performed Ruqyah for him.
He also taught Rafique several religious practices.
Among them, he instructed him to recite Ayat al-Kursi at least three times during the day and blow over himself afterward.
Before going to sleep, he instructed him to recite Surah Al-Ikhlas, Surah Al-Falaq, and Surah An-Nas three times each.
He also gave him several other supplications and practices to follow.
The Imam then explained his understanding of the incident.
He said that the supposed Jinn seemed to have a strong attraction toward the fish.
When Rafique refused to give up the fish initially, it allegedly tried to frighten him.
But the Imam reassured him that such entities were not necessarily as powerful as they appeared.
He told Rafique not to be intimidated.
With Allah's permission, the problem would eventually disappear.
Rafique followed the Imam's instructions carefully.
The change wasn't immediate.
There was no dramatic transformation overnight.
But slowly…
The nightmares became less frequent.
His health began improving.
His strength gradually returned.
Then, one night, something strange happened.
Rafique suddenly woke up.
He looked toward the window.
The curtain was moving slightly.
But once again…
There was no wind.
His heart began pounding.
Instead of panicking, he closed his eyes and began reciting the supplications the Imam had taught him.
Then…
He heard something inside the room.
A low, muffled gurgling sound.
Grrrrr… grrrrr…
Rafique became frightened.
But he continued reciting the prayers.
He recited them even louder.
And suddenly…
The sound stopped.
Completely.
After that, nothing else happened.
Rafique eventually fell asleep.
When he woke up the next morning, he felt something he hadn't felt in a long time.
It was as though an enormous weight had been lifted from his body.
His body felt light.
His mind felt peaceful.
And by the mercy of Allah…
He gradually returned to normal.
Within a short time, his physical health completely recovered.
The weakness disappeared.
The nightmares stopped.
And he no longer saw the black figure in his dreams.
His family was relieved to see him returning to his normal self.
Later, the Imam visited their home.
He told Rafique,
“Allah has protected you. But remember—don't go out alone at night like that again.”
He also advised him not to carry food, especially strong-smelling food such as fish, alone on deserted roads late at night.
Rafique agreed.
From that day forward, he stopped traveling alone along that road at night while carrying fish or other food.
He did continue buying Hilsa fish.
But whenever he brought fish home, he made sure to do so during the daytime.
Even today, whenever he carries Hilsa fish, the memory of that night near the Noa Bari Bridge comes back to him.
Thankfully, by Allah's mercy, he recovered.
And that is what matters most.
Dear listeners…
Stories involving fish and supernatural encounters are surprisingly common in the folklore of Bangladesh and parts of West Bengal.
And in our region, stories involving Hilsa fish seem to appear again and again.
Perhaps that's why, as some listeners jokingly say…
“A ghost story involving fish just doesn't feel complete without Hilsa.”
But whether you believe this was a Jinn encounter, a terrifying psychological experience, or something else entirely, one thing remains certain—
That night on the deserted road near the Noa Bari Bridge left Rafique with a memory he would never forget.
Dear listeners…
That was today's story.
Our sincere thanks to Rafique for sharing this chilling experience with us.
Until the next story…
Stay safe.
And may Allah protect you from every seen and unseen danger.
