Two people have been held in connection with the murder of a mother and her daughter in Chittagong. The accused have confessed that a break-up of a love affair was the reason for the killing.
In a confessional statement, Raihan and Shahid said they retaliated by killing Rizia Khatun and her daughter Saima Naznin at their house in Agrabad of the port city on Monday as Saima ended a love affair with Raihan.
Law enforcers, quoting Raihan and Shahid, said the two first planned to pick up Saima from her residence and then subsequently kill her family members.
In case they failed to do that, they decided they would kill Saima and others, and would then steal all the valuables from the flat, police said.
Acting on a tip-off, Detective Branch of Chittagong Metropolitan Police, with the assistance of DB officials of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, nabbed Raihan, 24, from a Malibagh flat in Dhaka around 5am yesterday. Another DB team of CMP, meanwhile, collared Shahid, 26, from a house in Chittagong’s Khulshi around midnight, said Babul Akhter, additional deputy commissioner of DB at CMP. Both the arrestees confessed before law enforcers to the murder, he said.
“During interrogation, Raihan said he and Saima got into a love affair on March 3 and he introduced himself as a BBA student at the University of Science and Technology in Chittagong (USTC) to convince the girl. Saima broke up with Raihan on March 17 after learning that the statement was not true. This made Raihan angry. Besides, Saima’s father, Rezaul once insulted Raihan when he tried to meet Saima,” the DB official said.
Following the break-up, Raihan met Shahid on March 22 and planned the murder. Raihan left his house on March 23, saying he was going to Dhaka for seeking work but went to Shahid’s mess.
The following day, when the men at Saima’s residence were out, they entered the house and said a school teacher had sent for Saima. They first attempted picking up Saima forcibly but a scuffle followed. That is when they killed the girl and her mother and fled.
Earlier on Monday, Rizia and Saima, a Secondary School Certificate candidate, were killed and Saif Reza, elder brother of Saima, blamed Raihan for the gruesome murder, saying he used to regularly harass Saima after being rejected.
Rizia’s husband Rezaul Karim lodged a case with Double Mooring Police Station on Tuesday, accusing Raihan and several unidentified people.
