Court allows younger daughter to stay alternatively with Japanese mother, Bangladeshi father

A court has allowed Nakano Laila Lina – the younger daughter of Bangladeshi father Imran Sharif and Japanese mother Nakano Eriko – to stay one day with her mother and the next day with her father until the case is resolved by a family court.

Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Mamunur Rashid gave the order on Thursday (2 February), Nasima Akhtar, lawyer of Imran Sharif, told the media.

Just a few days after a Dhaka court passed its order earlier on 29 January in favour of Nakano Eriko, who has been in a legal battle with her Bangladeshi ex-husband over the guardianship of their two daughters, Imran Sharif reportedly went off the public eye with 10-year-old Lina.

Later, upon being assumed missing, a general diary was filed at the Gulshan Police Station. After locating them, the father and daughter were taken to the RAB office, lawyer Nasima Akhtar said.

When they were presented in court today, Lina was repeatedly saying she wanted to stay with her father and was unwilling to go back to her mother, she added.

After hearing both sides, the court ordered the child be in custody of the father for one day and with her mother the next until the issue is fully resolved.

The Dhaka Family Court is scheduled to hear an appeal from Imran Sharif on 16 February against the verdict on custody of his daughters.

Earlier on 24 December last year, Nakano Eriko was stopped at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport while leaving the country with the girls.

In June 2022, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court dismissed three separate petitions including a court of contempt filed by both Japanese citizen Nakano Eriko and Bangladesh-born US citizen Imran Sharif regarding their two children.

Imran allegedly picked up his two eldest daughters on their way home from school in Japan and flew with them to Bangladesh three days after Nakano filed for a divorce in January 2021.