Why this brutality?

The image would shake anyone to the core. The description is so horrifying that reading it is not suitable for children or the faint-hearted.

Feet several inches above the ground. Both ears cut off, throat slit, genital cut off and two knives pierced deep inside the abdomen.

Tuhin Miah was only five. His body was found yesterday hanging from a tree some 200 yards away from his home at Kejaura of Sunamganj’s Derai upazila.

As the news spread in mainstream and on social media, everybody asked why anyone would unleash such unspeakable brutality on a child.

According to rights body Ain o Salish Kendra, at least 1,644 children faced violence and 182 of them were murdered from January to September this year.

Prof Mahjabeen Haque, chairperson of Dhaka University’s educational and counselling psychology department, said children were targeted as criminals find them to be easy preys.

In some cases, children become victims of attacks carried out due to grievances against their adult family members, she told The Daily Star over phone.

Over yesterday’s incident, police detained seven family members of Tuhin for interrogation.

Mijanur Rahman, acting superintendent of police in Sunamganj, said they primarily suspect some of the detainees could be involved in the gruesome murder.

He, however, did not elaborate on the matter.

Sub-Inspector Abu Taher Mollah of Derai police station said they were investigating the killing.

The body was sent to a Sunamganj hospital for autopsy, he said.

No case was filed till last night.

Police said they believed Tuhin, son of Abdul Basir and Monira Begum, was killed on Sunday night. On information, they recovered the body around noon yesterday, the OC said.

Talking to The Daily Star, one of Basir’s relatives, Imran Ahmed, said Tuhin was second among three brothers and a sister.

He said the families of Basir and his brother Abdul Mosabbir lived in adjacent rooms. The families went to bed after having dinner on Sunday night. 

Around 2:30am, they realised the door of Basir’s room was open, he said, adding that they then found Tuhin was missing. 

The families and their neighbours started searching the area for the boy and found the body about an hour later, he said.

He also said they found bloodstains on a road.

Before being detained by police, Mosabbir told this paper that Basir had a land dispute with some locals.

“But I don’t think the murder was carried out over such an issue. Whoever has done this, we want their punishment.”

Dhaka University’s Prof Mahjabeen said exemplary punishment through the establishment of the rule of law was necessary for stopping violence on children.

She stressed the need for enforcing laws effectively to bring down the rate of the crime.