Girl hacked to death in city

A 13-year-old girl was hacked dead in an attack that left three people, including her mother and sister, critically injured at the capital's Kadamtoli last evening.

The dead is Soheli Akter, a sixth-grader of AK High School at Dholaipar, said police.

The injured -- Soheli's mother Shahida Akter, 37, sister Sahara Akter, 7, and neighbour Jalal Ahmed, 40 -- were rushed to Dhaka Medical College Hospital. Shahida and Sahara were later shifted to separate private clinics, said DMCH sources.

All of them had received injuries in their heads and were reportedly in critical conditions.

Kadamtoli police said two unidentified men entered Shahida's flat located on the first floor of a five-storey building in Paterbagh area around 8:00pm. They started hacking the family members without any provocation.

While the culprits were fleeing, Jalal tried to stop them. The criminals then hacked him too and ran away.

Quoting a security guard of the building, police said a former tenant visited the building a few times over the last three days.

The guard bumped into him yesterday evening and asked him about the reason of his visit. The man said he had some jobs to do upstairs. The guard then allowed him in.

Soon after that, neighbours heard screams from Soheli's flat. They also saw the former tenant, whose name could not be known, rushing out of the building, police said.

The motive behind the killing could not be known immediately. The guard has been taken into police custody for quizzing.