Child 'strangled' in Mymensingh

A six-year-old girl child was strangled allegedly by her aunt Bilkis Akhter at Digarkanda village in Baira Union in Sadar upazila here yesterday afternoon.
Jesmin, a pre-primary student of a local BRAC School and daughter of Bachhu Miah and Khodeja Begum of Digarkanda, was strangled following a trifle incident.
Police said, a quarrel ensued following a trifle incident between Khodeja and Bilkis, mother and aunt of Jesmin.
After the incident, Mosharraf Hossain, punched his wife Bilkis that angered Bilkis to take revenge on Khodeja. Later, in the last afternoon when rain started, Bilkis called Jesmin to her house and allegedly strangled her by wrapping a piece of cloth into her mouth and binding rope around her neck.
Bilkis, then kept the kid's body under the mud of her house and put firewood on the top of the digging earth in order to conceal it.
As Jesmin was missing after the incident and after a massive search she was not found till 10pm last night, Khodeja suspected Bilkis that she might have killed her daughter. The house of Bilkis was then found under lock and key and she went out of her house.
Suspicion on Bilkis was raised with the passage of time and other members of the family searched the house of Bilkis and at one stage they found the body of Jesmin under the earth of her house. Family members caught Bilkis and informed the local Union Parishad (UP) chairman.
On information, a police team led Assistant Police Superintendent of Kotwali Police Station Apple Mahmud rushed to the spot and arrested Bilkis.
On contact, Apple Mahmud said Bilkis confessed to her involvement in the killing following a quarrel with her siter-in-law.
The body was sent to Mymensingh Medical College and Hospital (MMCH) morgue for autopsy.