Although they returned to normal living with the help of the Bangladesh Society for the Enforcement of Human Rights (BSEHR) and the government, and Dr Rita was doing well in her professional life, suddenly the two sisters have not been going to work and have been keeping themselves locked up again for more than a month.

Rita, elder of the two, has been absent from her office for more than a month without any notice, but she was doing very well at work before, said an official of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU), where she was working in the department of histopathology.

A few of her colleagues went to her house to know her present condition, but they could not enter the house since the two sisters are neither allowing anyone to enter their house nor are they talking to anyone, said Rita's colleagues apprehending a relapse of her mental illness.

Prof Mohammad Kamal, acting chief of the department of histopathology at BSMMU, admitted that Rita has been absent from work without any notice for more than a month.

"We have informed the authorities. According to the university rules, a show cause notice is supposed to be sent to the absentee after seven days of absence for unapproved leaves and after three months administrative steps is supposed to be taken against the absentee," Prof Kamal told The Daily Star.

Neighbours of the sisters said they did not see the two coming out of their house in the last two months, whereas they used to talk to people frequently before and sometimes even used to sit in their furniture shop, Woodland Doors and Furniture, that they opened about eight months ago.

The neighbours said Rita and Mita's eldest sister Kamrun Nahar Hena along with her husband have been trying to take possession of the house, where the two sisters live.

The house on 7.5 kathas of land in the capital's Mirpur area is known as the 'ghost house' among the neighbours, who said a sense of tremendous insecurity sparking from their eldest sister's and her husband's manoeuvrings to capture the house might have led the two sisters to live such an extremely secluded life.

An employee of the furniture shop said in the last two months Rita and Mita did not even collect any money from the shop and did not come out of their home at all. The employees of the shop have also been told not to allow any patient of Dr Rita to go to the house, where she used to see them as part of her private practice before relapsing into her illness.

Executive Director of BSEHR Advocate Elina Khan said her organisation observed the two sisters for six months after their rehabilitation, but as their psychiatrist said they were quite all right and the two sisters also said they did not need any further help, BSEHR stopped monitoring them.

"A team from BSEHR was sent to their house on Wednesday and Thursday. But they were neither allowed to enter the house nor did the sisters talked to them although they recognised the members of the team," said Elina adding that it seems that the sisters' mental conditions have worsened much.

Although Rita started to live a normal life following rehabilitation, Mita continued to be depressed as she could not find a job, said Dr Mohit Kamal, the psychiatrist who was treating the two sisters.

Mita's continued depression might have contributed to Rita's relapse into the illness, said Elina adding that BSEHR tried to keep the two sisters apart from one another but could not do that in the face of strong protest from both sisters.

The two sisters made the headlines in July 2005 as they had totally isolated themselves from the world confining themselves in total seclusion, being engrossed in religious practices and supernatural beliefs in their inherited parental house at Block-9, Section-6, of Mirpur since 1996.

In July last year, a team from BSEHR with cooperation from Pallabi police managed to convince the sisters to let them enter the house and to take the two to a clinic for treatment.

Since then, the sisters were undergoing treatment under Dr Mohit Kamal of Prottoy Medical Clinic in Banani of the capital.

Dr Kamal said they had been suffering from a serious mental illness called schizophrenia. He also said mental breakdown, suspicion, sense of insecurity and various social pressures might have caused the sisters to develop the mental disorder.

"Schizophrenia is a chronic relapsing mental disorder. Most probably they stopped taking medicine giving the disorder a chance to relapse," Dr Mohit Kamal told The Daily Star adding that the two sisters used to go to his clinic from time to time even after being rehabilitated, a practice they suddenly stopped about five to six months ago.

Rita had obtained her MBBS degree from Sir Salimullah Medical College in 1988 and joined government service in 1991 from which she resigned in 1996. After rehabilitation she joined the department of pathology at BSMMU as a Medical Officer.

Mita, who had graduated from the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet) in 1992, served at Sylhet Gas Field in 1994, worked for a gas infrastructure development project in 1996, and served at Buet's petroleum engineering department in 1997.