A case has been filed at Fulbaria police station in Mymensingh after a father and son were beaten and hacked to death for not attending a local arbitration (Salish), prompting the arrest of three persons.
The deceased’s wife filed the case on Monday morning. According to police, the case names 22 individuals and lists another 60 unidentified people as accused.
Among them, three were arrested and sent to jail through the Mymensingh court on Monday afternoon. The arrestees are Md Ripon, 32, from Palashihata village, Md Mozammel Haque, 65, from Naogaon village, and a 13-year-old boy.
Local sources said the victims, Abdul Gafur, 50, and his son Mehedi Hasan, 15, residents of Naogaon Dakshinpara village in Naogaon union, were beaten and hacked to death around noon on Sunday.
Police recovered their bodies and sent them to the Mymensingh Medical College morgue on Monday morning.
After the autopsy, the bodies were brought home in the evening and buried at the family graveyard later that night.
Fulbaria police station Officer-in-Charge Md Roknuzzaman said: "The father and son were attacked at their home and killed after refusing to attend a local arbitration. This motive has been stated in the case’s first information report (FIR). Three accused have been sent to jail, while others have fled the area. We are trying to arrest them."
Abdul Gafur’s wife, Shilpi Begum, said: “We had mortgaged 45.5 decimals of land to my husband’s cousin Abdul Motaleb five years ago for Tk2 lakh. As the mortgage term ended and we needed funds, we asked to extend the mortgage for another five years in exchange for Tk1 lakh.
"But Motaleb refused to return the land or give any money. When my husband planned to mortgage the land elsewhere, he objected. Though a local arbitration took place three months ago, and Tk1 lakh was paid, Motaleb threatened to take revenge.”
She added: “Mehedi was my husband’s son from a previous marriage. A few days ago, he caught two tilapia fish from Motaleb’s fishery, which made him angry and led to threats to drive us out of the area. Later, when a returning expatriate neighbour lost some documents and a phone, Mehedi was wrongly accused.
"A local arbitration was called, but my husband refused to take our son there. As a result, they attacked our house and killed them both. I was hiding at a brother-in-law’s house nearby during the attack—otherwise, they would have killed me too.”
