Woman feels betrayed, kills husband

In a bid to solve the financial crisis of the family, housewife Aklima Akther Akhi went to Saudi Arabia a couple of years back. She started working there hard and used to send the money to her husband in Bangladesh dreaming of a better future.

But her thankless husband Shaheen Alam, 40, a day labourer in profession, married another woman named Roksana, 30, spending Aklima's money and started living with her in a tin-roof house in Borobagh area of Mirpur in the capital.

Aklima, 35, came back to Bangladesh two weeks back, only to find her husband getting married to another woman. Out of frustration, she later killed her husband with a kitchen knife (boti) and went into hiding.

She also attacked co-wife Roksana with the same knife. Roksana is in a critical condition and undergoing treatment in Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH), said police and local sources.

Quoting her neighbour, police said Shaheen had been living in the one-room Mirpur house for the last six months with his second wife. Aklima came there two days before Eid and often got locked into a clash with Shaheen over the marriage, they said.

Around 1:30am yesterday, the neighbour heard screams from Shaheen's house and found Shaheen and Roksana lying in blood inside the room but Aklima was missing.

On information, police rescued the couple around 3:00am and sent them to DMCH where the doctors declared Shaheen dead, said Mizanur Rahman, inspector (investigation) of Mirpur Police Station.

He told The Daily Star that last night when Shaheen and Roksana went to sleep, Aklima attacked them with the knife.

 “In primary investigation, we came to know Aklima used to live in Saudi Arabia and could not accept her husband's second marriage and it led to the killing,” said Mizan, adding that a drive was under way to arrest Aklima.

It could not be known whether Aklima had any child with her husband.