“Forget justice, it has been four months, and I still do not know why my mother and three sisters were killed.” Eighteen-year-old Junaid Islam, also known as Sifat, struggles to hold back tears as he recalls the brutal killing of his mother and three sisters in Raipur Upazila of Lakshmipur.
The sole surviving member of his family, Sifat is now left to navigate life alone, reports Bangla Tribune.
On June 25, Sifat’s mother Shahinur Begum, 40, and his three sisters — Saima Akter, 21, Nafisa Akter, also known as Ikra, 17, and Fatema Akter, also known as Shifa, 10 — were brutally murdered at their rented home in Dhanhata area of Raipur Municipality.
After losing his family, Sifat moved into a neighbouring house. To support himself, he took a job at a local rod and cement shop. Although he spends most of his day at work, the memories return as soon as he gets home at night.
Sifat said keeping himself occupied during the day helped him get through the hours. But the loneliness becomes overwhelming when he returns home. Even when he tries to sleep, the faces of his mother and sisters haunt him. He is still struggling to accept that he will never see them again.
Alongside his grief, he is tormented by the fact that he still does not know why his family was killed. He wants investigators to examine every aspect of the case and uncover the truth. He also wants to know whether the accused, Antar Majumder, acted alone or whether others were involved.
On the day of the incident, four family members were hacked to death with sharp weapons inside their home. As Antar Majumder, 28, allegedly attempted to flee, local residents caught him and beat him up. He later died while undergoing treatment at Lakshmipur Sadar Hospital. His home district was Subarnachar in Noakhali.
The bodies of the four victims were taken to their ancestral home in Homna, Cumilla, and buried there following funeral prayers in Dhanhata the day after the killings.
Sifat filed a murder case with Raipur Police Station over the deaths of his family members. Police also filed a separate murder case over Antar’s death in the mob beating.
According to police, investigators are examining whether a romantic dispute, financial transactions, the theft of gold ornaments or personal enmity played any role in the killings. However, none of these possible motives has been established so far.
During a search of the house, police recovered some gold ornaments and cash that had been left untouched. This has made it difficult for investigators to conclude that robbery was the sole motive behind the killings.
However, two mobile phones used by the family were missing from the house. The devices were later recovered from the place where Antar was beaten by locals. Whether he had taken the phones from the house is also part of the investigation.
Investigators said they had also examined whether Antar had been in regular mobile phone contact with the family members before the incident. However, they found no evidence of regular communication.
Raipur Police Station Inspector (Investigation) Abdul Mannan is investigating both cases. He said the cases were being treated with utmost importance and that investigators were analysing witness statements, evidence collected from the crime scene, forensic findings and technological data.
Raipur Police Station Officer-in-Charge Nizam Uddin Bhuiyan said every aspect of the high-profile killings was being examined carefully, adding that police were working to uncover the actual motive behind the crime.