Police recovered the bodies of four children, aged between seven and ten, from a ditch at Shundratiki village under Bahubol upazila of the district yesterday morning, five days after they went missing.
Bahubol police detained Abdul Ali, 50, and his son Jewel Mia, 30, around 8:30pm from local Rashidpur Bazar for their suspected involvement in the murders.
The district police authorities earlier in the day declared a reward of Tk1 lakh for giving information to trace the criminals.
The deceased are Monir Miah, 7, son of Abdal Miah; Jakaria Ahmed Shuvo, 8, son of Md Wahid Miah; Tajel Miah, 10, son of Abdul Aziz; and Ismail Hossain, 10, son of Abdul Kader. Jakaria, Tajel and Monir’s fathers are cousins while Ismail was their neighbour.
Of the victims, Monir was a student of class I at Shundratiki Primary School, Jakaria of class II and Tajel of class IV. Ismail was a student of Shundratiki Madrasa.
Bahubol model police station OC Mosharraf Hossain confirmed the identity of the children. The children were strangled to death, the post-mortem examination reports say.
DIG Mizanur Rahman visited the crime scene in the afternoon and assured the victims’ families of ensuring justice. Later, he made the declaration of Tk1 lakh reward.
On Monday, Habiganj Superintendent of Police Joydeb Kumar Bhadra declared a bounty of Tk20,000 for any information regarding the missing children.
The families claimed that the OC had not taken the matter seriously when they wanted to file a general diary after the abduction.
They alleged that their neighbours Abdul Ali and Bachchu Mia could be behind the abduction and murder of the children over previous enmity. Monir’s mother claimed that the murders were premeditated.
In the morning, locals found the bodies buried under sand of the ditch and informed the police. The law enforcers recovered the bodies and collected some evidence from the spot.
The bodies were later sent to Habiganj Sadar Hospital for post-mortem examination. Police suspect that the criminals killed the children just after the abduction.
Jakaria’s father Wahid filed a case with Bahubol police on Tuesday night. Earlier, several police teams were assigned to find the children after Wahid filed a general diary on Saturday. Senior officials of Habiganj police visited Bahubol on Sunday and held a series of meetings with local officials.
