Rajani joins kid brother in death

With 90 percent of her body burned, Rajani at Dhaka Medical College Hospital on Thursday. She succumbed to her injuries yesterday around 6:00am.Photo: STAR

Eight-year-old Rajani Akhter died early yesterday like her brother did late Thursday at the ICU of the Burn and Plastic Surgery Unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
Her mother Bilashi Akhter, 28, had set fire to herself, Rajani and her four-year-old brother Abu Raihan at their Kamalapur home Thursday distraught over her husband's second marriage.
Rajani died around 6:00am.
Bilashi is undergoing treatment at the same hospital. Her condition was stated to be critical as she sustained burns on 70 percent of her body.
Bilashi's brother Selimuzzaman yesterday filed a case with Motijheel Police Station under the Children and Women Repression Prevention Act accusing Bilashi's detained husband Sayed Rajeeb Ali and five others of forcing his sister to commit suicide.
The others accused include Rajeeb's second wife Afreen, his father Syed Rustum Ali, and three family members of Rajeeb. Rajeeb was arrested on Thursday and was produced before a court yesterday, which sent him to jail.
Motijheel police said Rajeeb was produced before the court with a prayer for police remand.
Motijheel Police Station Officer-in-Charge Tofazzal Hossain told The Daily Star last night that they were going to file two separate cases against Bilashi in connection with attempt to suicide and killing her two children.
While talking to The Daily Star, human rights leaders and police blamed Bilashi for killing her two children and Rajeeb for provoking her to commit suicide.
Ain O Salish Kendra (ASK) Executive Director Sultana Kamal, also a former adviser to a caretaker government, said, "The father of the children could file a case against his wife for killing the children. If he does not do it, police should file a case in this connection as none has the right to kill anybody."
"Suicide attempt and suicide are criminal offences," Sultana Kamal said, adding, "The children were killed by their mother and she should not be spared."
Expressing concern, human rights activist Elina Khan, executive director of Bangladesh Society for the Enforcement of Human Rights, said, "If such tendency to commit suicide and kill children are not stopped, it could get a shape of an epidemic soon."
Elina said her organisation would think about whether they would take any measures against the mother.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner AKM Shahidul Hoque said he already directed the police officials concerned to implicate the mother in the case in connection with killing of the children.
If the mother survives, she would be charged with attempting to suicide and killing her children, the DMP Commissioner said.
Replying to a query, Bilashi's brother Selimuzzaman, who filed the case, told The Daily Star, "It is also true that my sister did not do the right thing by killing her two children."
Locals rescued Bilashi Akhter and her two children from the roof of their 108 South Kamalapur house after she set fire on her body and her two children.