SM Mizanur Rahman :
Bodies of four minor boys, who went missing from last Friday, were found dumped in sand adjacent to the west side of a waterbody named Sandhadighi at Sundratiki village in Bahubal upazila of Habiganj district on Wednesday six-day after their abduction by unknown miscreants.
All the four kids were believed to have been slaughtered first and later dumped into the sandy area adjacent to the waterbody located half kilometer off the village.
Locals and relatives however, could not give any clear picture about the tragedy but the police suspected that family feud might have led to the brutal killing of the boys.
The tragic and barbaric murder created a sense of deep shock and grief among the inhabitants of village as wells as Bahubal upazila.
Local labourers working beside the waterbody spotted one of the body of four minor boys, lying dumped under the sand and they immediately informed the local as well as police about the matter.
Family members rushed to the spot along with locals and police came to the spot. They later recovered the bodies of the ill-fated kids.
The victims were Jakaria Ahmed Shuvo, 08, son of M Wahid Miah; Tazel Miah, 10, son of Abdul Aziz; Monir Miah, 07, son of Afzal Miah; and Ismail Miah, 07, son of Abdul Quader, residents of Sundratiki village.
Monir was a Class I student of Sundratiki Government Primary School, while Shuvo was Class II and Tazel was Class IV at the same institution. And Ismail was a student of Sundratiki Madrassa. Monir, Shuvo and Tazel were cousins and Ismail was their neighbour.
According to local, police and family sources, the four minor boys had gone missing on Friday afternoon while playing at a field of their Sundratiki village.
The family members became worried and looked for them at different places, as the children did not return home even after the sun set on that day.
At one stage family members, villagers and members of law enforcing launched a massive hunt to trace the missing boys. They also continued massive miking at different villages of the Bahubal upazila about the missing of the kids.
Later Additional Deputy Inspector General Akkasuddin visited the spot and announced Tk 20,000 reward for information about their whereabouts.
Parents of the missing boys filed a general diary with Bahubal Police Station in this connection on Tuesday.
When contacted Superintendent of Habiganj Police Joydev Kumar Bhadra and Officer-in-charge of Bahubal Police Station Mosharraf Hossain termed the incident as barbaric and said that they would launch all out efforts to net the criminals.
Joydev Kumar Bhadra said the bodies have been sent to the Habiganj Sadr hospital morgue for autopsy.
“After getting autopsy report, we will get some clues behind the murder,” he said, adding autopsies will reveal the time as to when they were killed, he said.
The police super said Zakaria’s father filed a murder case, which has been handed over to Officer-in-Charge of Habiganj Detective Branch of police Md Moktadir Hossain for investigation.
He said the minor boys were probably buried in that sandy spot after being murdered at a different place, Joydev Kumar Bhadra.
“It looks like it could have been the work of rivals. We’ll learn more after we talk to their families,” he said.
Mosharraf Hossain, officer-in-charge of Bahubal Police Station said the children went to play to a nearby field around 3:00pm on Friday but they did not return homes.
“General diaries were lodged in this connection on the following day,” he said adding that no ransom money was demanded from the victims’ families.
Meanwhile, DIG of Police Mizanur Rahman, who visited the site said that a sum of Tk 100,000 bounty leading information about tracing the killers.
