Murder, suicides on rise over family feud

Syed Shemul Parvez :
Incidents of murder of relatives by relatives are occurring almost daily across the country. Somewhere the husband is killing the wife, somewhere else the husband is being killed by the wife. Again there are incidents like father or mother being killed by the son, child being killed by the father or mother and brother being killed by the brother.

In the last one and half months, there have been a dozen such brutal incidents occurring across the country which has created a sensation among the common people of the country.

All in all, the bonds of family relations are loosening and turn into clash finally resulting murders and suicides.

Crime analysts say that these incidents of family violence are happening due to the weakening of social bonds and family relations. Consequently, the matter of family disputes is rising all over the country.

Experts see various issues like social media addiction, estrangement, conflict over sharing of property (family conflict), mental disorders, economic poverty and globalization as the reasons behind the weakening of family ties.

Some experts believe that family and social ties are also loosening due to the spread of foreign culture, wrong messages on social media, decline in sports and non-observance of social and religious precepts.

Besides, emotional distress, financial crisis, , wrong choice of partner, mental stress, severe depression, sexual harassment as well as study pressure among students are the main reasons behind the suicide cases, experts said.

Earlier on January 30, bodies of three members of a family were recovered from a locked flat in Tarash municipality of Sirajganj.

The deceased Bikash Sarkar, 45, his wife Swarna Sarkar, 40, and their 15-year-old daughter Paromita Sarkar alias Tushi, were residents of Bottala area.

On February 2, a man allegedly killed his wife and two daughters over a family
feud in Daroyani Bandarbazar under Sadar upazila of Nilphamari.

The deceased were known as Tahura Begum, 30, wife of Ashikul Mollah, their two daughters Tania Akter, 11, and Jarin Akter, 6.
Before that, On January 28, Police recovered the hanging bodies of a father and his 7-year-old son from a rented house in Mangalbaria area of Kushtia city. The deceased have been identified as Rezaul Karim alias Mudhu (38) son of Bishnupad Roy and his minor son Mogdha, 7.

The previous day on January 26, a mother’s body was found lying in the kitchen at Chatmohar in Pabna and her son’s body was hanging from a nearby tree. Later the police recovered two bodies.

Besides, a housewife Poly Begum tried to commit suicide by drinking poison after poisoning her three daughters last month in Gopalganj, unable to bear the mental torture of her mother-in-law regarding her father’s multiple marriages.

Not only these few cases, but the cases of domestic violence and murder have been increasing over the years, from which even children are not spared.

In this regard, Dr. Tawohidul Haque, Associate Professor and Social Criminologist, University of Dhaka, told The New Nation that recently we have experienced some incidents where some members of a family including minor children, were killed by father and mother due to various reasons.

When a husband cannot afford the cost of the family or cannot lead the family proper way, a dispute normally created breaking the relationship. Besides, extra marital status also responsible breaking the relation turns into feud which sometime also leading to murder and suicides.

Each family has some crisis based on finances and relationship. But they have to tackle all sorts of situations through mutual discussion and sacrifice. Otherwise, it will not be possible to reduce such family disputes from the society, Dr. Haque added.

According to human rights organization Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK), last year, 207 women died due to torture by their husbands and 142 committed suicide because they could not bear the torture. During this period, 574 women were raped and 129 were attempted to rape. Among them 33 people died after rape and 5 people committed suicide.

At the same time around 485 children were killed in various ways.

In this context, ASK Executive Director Faruq Faisal told the media, “I think there has been social unrest in our society. People are losing faith in people and institutions. If this social unrest is not removed, people will become more mentally ill.

If we cannot turn the society into an honest and tolerant society, then there is a danger that this instability will spread in different areas. We have to work together in this case, he said.

It is to be noted that suicide incidents, especially among the youths, are increasing in an alarming rate across the country daily.

There have been reports of hundreds of young students committing suicide from different parts of the country for trivial reasons.