Sixty-year-old Bangladesh woman knifed to death in New York

A 60-year-old Bangladeshi woman has been knifed to death in New York less than two blocks near her home in Queens.

Senior CorrespondentNew York Correspondent and bdnews24.com
Published : 1 Sept 2016, 12:47 PM
Updated : 1 Sept 2016, 12:47 PM

Relatives of the victim, Nazma Khanam, suspect that the killing, happening a little over two weeks after two Bangladeshis were gunned down, is a 'hate crime.'

Police said Nazma was attacked around 9pm Wednesday (local time) near her home at Normal Road in Jamaica.

Nazma, who taught at a school in Bangladesh's Shariatpur, moved to the United States about 10 years ago with her husband Shamsul Haque.

The couple have three children and one of them lives in New York.

Relatives said the couple was walking back home and Nazma was a bit ahead of her husband.

"Suddenly my brother-in-law heard my sister screaming and saw two to three men fleeing after stabbing her," Nazma's brother Altaf Hossain, who lives in Bangladesh, told bdnews24.com quoting the victim's husband.

She was rushed to the Jamaica Hospital where she was pronounced dead.

"This is a hate crime as she was wearing the attire of a Muslim woman. They took nothing," the victim's nephew, New York resident Mohammad Rahman, told bdnews24.com.

Police, however, are yet to comment on the motive and said an investigation has been launched.

On Aug 17, a Bangladesh-origin Imam, Maulana Alauddin Akonjee, 55, and his associate Thara Uddin, 64, were shot dead.

The gunman approached the men from behind and shot both in the head at close range in the Ozone Park neighbourhood of Queens.

Both of them were wearing religious garb, police said.

A 35-year-old hispanic man, Oscar Morel, has been arrested and charged for the murders.

A second murder of a Bangladesh-origin in 17 days has left the Bangladeshi community in Jamaica and Ozone Park neighbourhoods of Queens in panic.

"The Bangladeshis living here always wear Bengali attires. No-one is feeling safe after these kinds of attacks," said local resident Akbar Hossain.

Hossain, who has been living in Queens for the last 15 years, said they used to consider it as a safe neighbourhood.

"But the recent incidents have changed it."