Forbidden love ends in suicide pact

A modern day Romeo and Juliet story has ended in tragedy after two young lovers took their own lives.

Sixteen-year-old Mithu Mollah was married to a man twice her age and forced to move more than 100 kilometres to be with him in the nation's capital, Dhaka.

Her boyfriend, 17-year-old Soud Sheikh, stayed home and the two carried on a secret affair for two months, the Daily Mail reports.

On Valentine's Day Soud called his brother to say he would be with his girlfriend forever after they took their own lives.

The lovers then tied their hands together with a scarf and leaped to their deaths from a mobile phone tower.

Forced marriages are common in Bangladesh, as are forbidden affairs between young lovers.