An 18-year-old housewife set on fire allegedly by her husband and in-laws on October 5 died in Dhaka Medical College Hospital early Sunday.
The victim, Shayla, had more than 80 per cent of her body surface, including the face and the chest, burnt in the incident of October 5 in her husband’s house at Kowdia of Ghior in Manikganj.
The victim’s mother, Sakhina Begum, said her son-in-law Mohammad Salim and his mother Saleha in the evening on day set her daughter on fire after beating her up. Shayla was taken to the burn and plastic surgery unit at Dhaka Medical College Hospital. She died about 2:00am on Sunday.
Shayla was married
to Salim, a brick-field labourer, six month
ago. She lost her father at an early age and her mother reared her working as day labourer, the family said
Shayla’s mother gave Tk 10,000 in dowry to her son-in-law during and after the wedding, but the in-laws used to torture Shayla demanding 4.37 grams of gold Shayla’s family agreed to give at the time of wedding, they said. Sakhina said her daughter had been tortured many times for dowry.
The police on Sunday arrested Salim and his mother in this connection after a case had been filed by Shayla’s family.
According to rights watchdog Odhikar, 297 women were subjected to dowry-related violence between January and September.
Of the women, 190 were killed because of the dowry and 85 were treated inhumanly.
OF them 22 allegedly committed suicide after failing to come to terms with the dowry-related ill-treatment and violence.
