Man kills 4 before taking own life
His wife, mother-in-law, 2 neighbours murdered
A man hanged himself after killing four people, including his wife and mother-in-law, following a family feud in Barlekha upazila yesterday.
The man was identified as Nirmal Karmakar from Ahllad tea garden. Nirmal, 35, used to live at his in-laws’ house at Pallartal tea garden, where the incident took place.
He stabbed his wife Joly Bannerjee, 33, mother-in-law Laxmi Bannerjee, 60, and neighbours Basanta Bakta, 60, and Basanta’s daughter Sheuly Bakta, 27, to death. All the victims were tea workers in Pallartal.
Kanan Bakta, 13, Basanta’s younger daughter, also came under attack and was undergoing treatment at Sylhet’s MAG Osmani Medical College and Hospital.
According to the officer-in-charge (OC) of Barlekha Police Station Yasinul Haque, a fight broke out between Nirmal and Joly around 5:00am yesterday. When Nirmal started physically assaulting her, Joly sought shelter in her mother’s room. Nirmal then forced his way into the room and started stabbing Joly with a sharp weapon and did the same to Laxmi when she tried to intervene.
It was then that neighbours Basanta and Sheuly came to the scene to try and stop Nirmal but he also stabbed them. All four victims died on the spot, the OC said.
Nirmal also tried to attack Chandana Bannerjee, Joly’s 10-year-old daughter from a previous marriage, but she fled the scene. A few moments after the murders, Nirmal hanged himself in the house and died, the police official added.
Locals and police said that Joly had married Nirmal around a year and a half ago. Nirmal was unemployed and allegedly addicted to drugs, which according to locals led to frequent fights in the family.