Poverty ‘drove' mother to kill 2 daughters

"I killed my two daughters and burnt myself too…"

These were the words that Arifunnessa Popy, 35, the mother of two children, screamed to her father Abu Taleb, when he knocked on the door of Popy's Khilgaon flat yesterday morning.

Relatives suspect that the woman murdered her daughters before attempting suicide as she has been struggling financially because her husband could not bear the expenses of the family.

Mozammel Haque Biplab, her husband, who lives in Munshiganj and manages his electrical goods business, claimed that the allegations raised by Popy's family were not true. Mozammel, however, admitted that his family was going through a financial crisis due to the burden of loans.

The bodies of 12-year-old Mehjabin Alvi and her seven-year-old sister Jannatul Ferdous were found slit-throated inside the flat on the third floor of a residential building in Dakshin Goran around 8:00am, said Mashiure Rahman, officer-in-charge of Khilgaon Police Station.

Police recovered a suicide note from the house. "We are investigating the incident," he added.

Popi was rescued and admitted to the burn unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) with 18 percent burn injuries.

Forensic doctors said the children were killed before their bodies were set on fire.

At the hospital, Popy told reporters that her husband rebuked her whenever she wanted money.

"He told me to come back home in Srinagar and settle there. He wanted to admit my two children in a local madrasa as he could not afford us living in Dhaka," Popy said.

Popy used to live in her father's house for nine years since her marriage and moved to the flat in Goran three years back, Popy's father Abu Taleb told reporters at DMCH.

He said the family's expense was about Tk 25,000 per month including the house rent of Tk 11,500. But Biplab used to give very less money and told Popy to run with it.

SUICIDE NOTE

In the suicide note recovered by police, Popy said it was unbearable for her to run the family due to the increasing living cost. Popy tried to kill herself but survived, Zulfiqar Ali, senior assistant commissioner of DMP's Khilgaon zone, told The Daily Star.

"Familial dispute and psychological disharmony led her into depression, which might have triggered her to do this," the police official said.

"Her husband also threatened to divorce her and marry a working woman instead," he said quoting the note.

'I AM IN A LOT OF DEBT'

The couple's elder daughter Alvi was a fourth grader at National Ideal School in Khilgaon and Jannatul was a first grader in the same school.

Biplab said their daughters were among the brightest students of the school.

"My elder daughter won a prize for the highest attendance in class, while my younger daughter won prize for securing first place her class," he told The Daily Star over phone.

Biplab said he last spoke to his wife around 9:00pm on Friday. In the conversation, Biplab told Popy that he would be coming to Dhaka today (Sunday) as he was dealing with loan-related issues.

About allegations of not bearing expenses, Biplab said he has been paying house rent and their children's tuition fees every month.

"On Friday, I sent her Tk 1,500."

"I am in a huge amount of debt. I took a loan of Tk 25 lakh from a private bank. As I failed to pay it, the bank issued a notice about auctioning off my property. My business was not doing well" he said.

Biplab said he told his wife to move to Srinagar but she didn't take it well.

He said he took a loan of Tk 10 lakh from a local against his properties. "I paid him Tk 22 lakh but he was not returning my property," he alleged.

Living expenses in Dhaka has been increasing day by day. According to New York-based CEOWORLD magazine, Bangladesh is the most expensive country to live in in South Asia.

Earlier in February, BTCL official Raquib Uddin Bhuiyan, apparently burdened with debt, allegedly killed his wife and two children in the city's Dakshinkhan area.

At least 448 children were murdered in the country in 2019. Among them, 36 were killed and 14 were injured by their parents, according to Bangladesh Shishu Adhikar Forum, a platform campaigning for child rights.