Toddler stabbed to death in city

An 18-month-old baby boy was stabbed to death at his home in the capital's Uttar Khan area on Monday night.

His mother, Fahmida Mir Mukti, 30, was under treatment yesterday at Dhaka Medical College Hospital with cut marks in her throat.

Police suspect that Mukti attempted suicide after killing her son Nihal Sadik following feuds with her husband Sazzad Hossain Murad, 35, a shop employee in Uttara.

The incident took place barely one and a half months after law enforcers accused a mother of killing her two children out of her “concerns about their future” in the capital's Banasree.

Last night, Murad filed a murder case with Uttar Khan Police Station against his wife.

Mukti, undergoing treatment in police custody, was out of danger.

Talking to journalists at the DMCH yesterday afternoon, she wondered who would want to kill her or her infant.

On Monday night, police rushed to Murad's house in Masterpara area on information that his wife and son were stabbed, Asaduzzaman, sub-inspector of Uttar Khan Police Station, told this correspondent yesterday.

They then took Mukti and Nihal to a private hospital where doctors declared the boy dead around 11:30pm, he said.

Sources at the DMC morgue said there were four stab marks in the body.

Police said they were yet to recover the murder weapon.

Murad's next-door neighbour Naznin Akhter yesterday told this correspondent that both Murad and Mukti are married for the second time.

They used to quarrel frequently, as they suspected each other of having extramarital affairs.

Mukti wanted to live separately. She also had feuds with her husband over the custody of their child, said the neighbour.

On Saturday night, Murad drove Mukti out of the house following a fight. She had to stay outside until their neighbours calmed things.

“Yesterday [Monday] evening, Mukti told me to lock the door of their flat from outside so that she didn't have to open it when her husband returned at night. She told me she wanted to sleep,” said Naznin.

Around 10:00pm on Monday, Murad entered the flat and found his bloodied son and wife on the bed. He then knocked at the door of Naznin's flat and sought her help, she added.

Alamgir Hossain, inspector (investigation) of Uttar Khan Police Station, said they were yet to talk to Mukti since she was under treatment.

DMCH sources said one of Nihal's uncles received his body from the morgue for burial at their village home in Bhola.