Two children were burnt to death and their mother sustained critical burn injuries after the in-laws of the woman set fire to their residence at village Piargaon under Jagannathpur in Sunamganj district on late Sunday night.
The deceased was identified as Ria Akter, 3, and her brother Imon Ahmed, 5, both children of Nuruddin Ahmed while their mother Sabiha Begum, with 100 per cent burn injuries, was fighting for her life at burn unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital, the hospital sources said.
Family members of the victim Sabiha alleged that her husband’s family members had set fire on their house as her father refused to pay dowry as demanded by them.
Sabiha’s brother Jahidul Islam, who took his ailing sister to DMCH, told reporters that her husband Nuruddin Ahmed, a Kuwait expatriate, had been demanding Tk 3 lakh for the last few months.
‘Nuruddin’s brother Shafiq, his sister Nasima and father Astor Ali entered the room of Sabiha and her children while they were asleep and set fire on them by pouring kerosene at around 7:30pm on Sunday,’ Jahidul said.
Hearing the screams of Sabiha, the neighbours rushed in and rescued her and the children and took them to Osmani Medical College Hospital where the two siblings died at around 12:30am.
Soon after the incident, family members of Nuruddin fled the area. Sabiha was later shifted to plastic surgery and burn unit of DMCH on Monday afternoon, Jahid said.
Sunamganj police superintendent Golam Kibria told New Age that Sabiha’s in-laws’ family members had set fire on them by pouring kerosene as her family had refused to pay dowry to them.
He also said that a case was filed in this connection.
-With The New Nation input
