A man killed his wife and daughter over a family feud early yesterday at Hirajheel in Shiddhirganj, Narayanganj.
Beauty Begum, the murderer’s sister-in-law, said Yasin Ali Shumon, the accused, had been sharing rent and living in her house with his wife, her sister Moyna Begum, their 12-year-old daughter Nur Jahan Akhter Swapna and their five-year-old son Emon. Shumon had been jobless for the past four months due to his drug addiction and could not pay the rent. The household costs were paid by Moyna’s sisters.
The family’s financial condition had caused a rift between the husband and wife, said Beauty, adding that they often fought. On the night of the incident, Shumon was having an altercation with Moyna and, at one stage, he started hacking her with a kitchen knife.
Renu Begum, a neighbour, said Swapna started screaming when she saw her father attacking her mother.
“When we heard Swapna’s screams, we went and peeked through their window. Swapna came to us and pleaded to rescue her, saying her father had hacked her mother to death,” she said.
“She was talking to us when Shumon came and killed her too,” she added.
Renu said Shumon was going to kill his son too, but stopped when she requested him not to. “I begged him not to kill Emon and promised I would take care of him,” she said. “I told him that the neighbours were going to kill him if he did not stop, but they would only hand him over to police if he spared Emon.”
Locals locked Shumon inside the house and informed police, who then went to the scene and arrested him.
They also recovered the bodies and the murder weapon from the scene.
Sub-Inspector Jahirul Haque, OC of Shiddhirganj police station, said the bodies had been sent to Narayanganj General Hospital for a post-mortem.
The filing of a case was in progress, he added.
