I have heard some horror stories about the largest lake in Dhaka city, Bangladesh. But I never thought I would experience the haunting by myself. This article is about the tall ghostly figure that i saw at night on the road beside Hattirjheel.
Some roads feel different after midnight.
Not because the city changes completely, but because the silence becomes heavier. The lights seem farther apart. The shadows begin to feel less empty.
Last Saturday night, Hatirjheel became one of those places.
A Dark Stretch Before Bridge Number 2 (Near Mohanagar Project)
After crossing the Rampura U-loop and entering Hatirjheel Road, the ride home felt normal at first. The road was quiet, the traffic had thinned, and the city had slipped into that late-night stillness familiar to anyone who rides through Dhaka after dark.
Around 200 meters before Mohanagar Bridge, the rider needed to change lanes from the left side to the right. That particular section felt unusually dark. There was no clear lane divider, and no streetlights stood in the middle of the road to break the darkness.
Only the road ahead, the faint glow of distant lamps, and the sound of the motorcycle moving through the night.
The Figure Crossing the Road
Then, suddenly, a man appeared.
He was crossing the road.
At first glance, he looked like a mentally unstable roadside homeless person. But within that brief moment, something about him felt wrong.
He was unusually tall—perhaps around seven feet, maybe even more. His body was covered in something that looked like rough jute sackcloth, hanging loosely from him like old, torn fabric. In the darkness, his face and body were difficult to understand clearly.
For a second, the mind tried to explain it in the simplest way possible.
Maybe he was just a lost man.
Maybe he was only someone wandering through the night.
But the feeling was not normal.
The rider quickly passed him at speed and moved into the right lane.
The Same Figure Again
A little later, while going up the flyover near Mohanagar Bridge, the rider looked toward the lakeside pathway.
And there he was again.
The same figure.
This time, he was not in the road.
He was on the lakeside pathway.
Standing there in the darkness.
That was the moment everything changed.
There did not seem to be any normal explanation. The distance, the timing, and the position of the figure made it feel impossible for an ordinary person to have reached that spot so quickly.
The first sight could have been dismissed as a strange man crossing the road.
The second sight could not be dismissed so easily.
Not the Hatirjheel Ghost People Usually Talk About
Hatirjheel has always carried its share of unsettling stories. Many people have heard tales of a ghostly figure resembling a mad homeless woman, appearing along the roads, bridges, and lakeside paths at night.
But this encounter was different.
This figure was male.
He was taller, stranger, and wrapped in something like sackcloth. He did not feel like a normal passerby, nor did he feel like the familiar story people usually tell about Hatirjheel.
There was something quiet and disturbing about his presence, as if he belonged to that dark stretch of road more than any living person should.
A Ride That Stayed in the Mind
After that second sighting, the rest of the ride no longer felt ordinary.
The road was still the same road. The bridge was still the same bridge. The lake was still silent beside the city.
But something had shifted.
Every shadow seemed deeper. Every empty part of the pathway felt watched. The darkness no longer felt like just darkness.
It felt occupied.
Some Encounters Do Not Need Proof
Maybe it was a trick of the night.
Maybe there was some explanation hidden in the darkness.
Or maybe Hatirjheel, like many places where water, silence, and lonely roads meet, has things that appear only when the city becomes quiet enough.
Not every encounter asks to be believed by everyone.
Some experiences only ask to be remembered by the person who saw them.
And on that Saturday night near Mohanagar Bridge, one rider saw something on Hatirjheel Road that refused to feel human.