Staff Reporter :
Police have recovered the bodies of two slaughtered children from a home in the capital’s Khilgaon while their mother was found with burn injuries on her body.
But there were no signs of a fire or forced entry at the house, according to police.
Relatives suspect the woman, identified as Akhtarunnesa Popi, murdered her daughters over a domestic row before setting herself on fire in an apparent suicide attempt.
The bodies of 12-year-old Jannat and her 7-year-old sister Alvi were with their throats slashed in a flat on the third floor of a residential building in Goran around 10am on Saturday, according to Khilgaon Police OC Moshiur Rahman.
Popi, 35, was rescued and sent to Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH). She suffered burns about 18 percent of her body, said Bachchu Mia, an Inspector of the DMCH police outpost.
Speaking to reporters at DMCH, Popi’s father Abu Taleb said she was having problems with her husband, Mozammel Haque, who lives in Munshiganj.
The couple had lived together for the first nine years of their marriage, but Popi recently moved to a different house, according to Abu Taleb. When contacted by bdnews24.com, Mozammel said he comes to Dhaka every Friday to see his family. But he could not make the trip this week as he was dealing with property-related issues back home.
Abu Taleb believes the dispute with her husband triggered Popi to set fire to herself.
Mozammel said, he last spoke to his wife at 9pm on Friday. During the conversation, Mozammel informed Popi that he would be coming to Dhaka on Sunday.
“She didn’t sound angry at all when we spoke. There were no indications that she would go on to do such a thing.”
Police will take every available information into account during its investigation into the incident, said OC Moshiur.
