Woman, daughter found dead in Cumilla home, husband flees

Traces of poison have been found in the room where the bodies were recovered, the landlord says

Police have recovered the bodies of a woman and her daughter from a third-floor flat in Cumilla’s Burichang Upazila.

Local police station chief Mohammad Azizul Haque said the bodies were recovered from the flat in a building called “Chhatar Villa” near the Cumilla-Sylhet Highway in the Upazila’s Rampur area on Tuesday morning.

The deceased have been identified as Zaheda Akhter, 35, and her 12-year-old child Fatema, identified with a single name.

Zaheda used to work at a local shoe factory named Jihan Footwear. The family was originally from Feni’s Chhagalnaiya.

Her husband, Mir Hossain, is a construction worker.

Neighbours said Mir jumped off the roof and fled the house following the incident.

House owner Abul Khayer said Zaheda and her husband had rented the flat on Jul 12. Around midnight on Monday, the foreman of Zaheda’s factory, Ibrahim, phoned to inform him of her death inside the flat and requested him to stop Mir from escaping.

“When I went upstairs, I saw Mir jumping off the roof to flee. Later, I found Zaheda and her daughter lying dead inside the room,” he said.

“Zaheda’s other daughter and her mother-in-law were in the adjacent room."

Khayer added, “Traces of poison were found in the room, but the exact cause of death has yet to be confirmed.”

Neighbour Abdullah Sarkar said, “We lived next door but never saw any conflict between the couple. It was after the Fazr prayer that we learnt from the landlord that the mother and daughter had died.”

OC Azizul said the bodies were sent to the morgue for autopsy, and the cause of death would be determined after receiving the report.