After fighting for life for five days, a teenage girl yesterday died of burn injuries inflicted on her by three youths for refusing to accept love proposal of one of the youths.
Aneza Akhter, 17, succumbed to her injuries at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of Dhaka Medical College Hospital’s burn unit around 3:00pm. Seventy percent of her body was burnt.
Tairan Sarker, 24, approached Aneza of Tukparchar village in Jamalpur, with a love proposal. Rejected, Tairan along with his two accomplices — Russel Sheikh and Rana — set her on fire in the wee hours of Tuesday.
Aneza’s mother Amena Begum told The Daily Star that Aneza went to bathroom outside the house at about 3:00am on the fateful night.
As soon as she came out of the bathroom, Tairan threw on her some liquid from a bottle when one of his accomplices stroked a match, threw it on her body and immediately fled, said Amena, who was standing in front of the house, some 20 yards from the bathroom.
Amena rushed to her daughter’s rescue, but the flame had already burnt most of her body, she said.
Aneza was initially taken to Bakshiganj upazila health complex, and shifted to DMCH burn unit on Wednesday as her condition worsened.
Bakhsiganj police arrested Tairan’s brother Swapan, an accused in the case filed by the victim’s mother while the three main accused are on the run.
Swapan denied any involvement in the incident, but said he knew that the three used to stalk Aneza, said Nasir Ahmed, officer-in-charge of Bakshiganj Police Station.
Amena told this correspondent that some youths had been stalking Aneza on her way to and from school for last three years, which led to her dropout from the school after passing class V.
She had been staying back home since. At this, the stalkers used to loiter in front of her house and take drugs.
In this backdrop, Aneza’s parents arranged her marriage with a youth of the same village. The marriage was scheduled for this month.
The youths became desperate at this and threatened Aneza and her mother of severe consequences two days before setting her on fire, Amena said.
