A daily wage earner, his wife and their school-going daughter have been murdered in Koyra upazila of Khulna.
Informed, police on Tuesday morning recovered their bodies from a pond near their house in Bagali union.
“The bodies have wounds inflicted by sharp weapons. We suspect they were hacked to death and then the bodies were dumped in the pond in order to cover up the crime,” said Shahadat Hossain, officer-in-charge (OC) of Koyra police station.
“We believe this was a premeditated murder,” OC Shahadat added.
The victims have been identified as Habibullah Gazi, 33, his wife Beauty Begum, 28, and their 13-year-old daughter Tuni. They lived next to Bagali Union Parishad (UP) office.
OC Shahadat said they have launched an investigation into the triple murder. “We have identified several leads and we are pursuing them.”
Following the incident, police have taken four into police custody for questioning.
A reliable local source said, victim Habib had was once before assaulted by his neighbour and her accomplices reportedly because he had found out about her illegitimate affairs which she intended to keep secret.
Five months ago, unidentified men wearing masks assaulted Habib with sharp weapons.
Locals now suspected that the killing of Habib and his family members was a sequel to that incident.