Children found slaughtered, mother hanging from the ceiling

On an ordinary Tuesday morning in Khalisakandi village, Shajahanpur upazila, Bogura, Shahadat Hossain woke up like any other day. An army man stationed in Mymensingh, he had come home on leave a week earlier. That morning he walked to the local shop and bought a packet of chocolate chips — a small treat he loved surprising his children with.

When he returned, the house was eerily quiet. The front door was locked from the inside. He knocked repeatedly; no one answered. Neighbours gathered. One of them, Hanif, grabbed a shovel and forced the door open.

Inside, the scene shattered him.

On the floor lay his two young children — three-year-old Saifa Akter and seven-month-old Saif Uddin — their throats slit, blood pooling around them. In the next room, his wife Sadia Mostarim (24) was hanging from the ceiling, a veil tied tightly around her neck.

Shahadat collapsed unconscious on the spot.

According to Shajahanpur Police Station OC Shafiqul Islam, the incident took place between 8:00 and 8:30 am on Tuesday. 

A blood-stained bati (sharp kitchen knife) was recovered from the house. The preliminary police idea is that Sadia first slit her children’s throats and then hanged herself, possibly triggered by ongoing marital discord.

Shahadat Hossain has been taken into custody for questioning, though officers acknowledge he is in deep shock and mentally broken.

Neighbours paint a troubled picture of the marriage. They say the couple frequently quarrelled. On Monday night, Sadia had taken the younger child, Saif, to a private clinic because he had pneumonia. When they returned home, another argument erupted over family matters. Witnesses say Shahadat beat Sadia that night. The couple slept in separate rooms, still angry. By morning, the children and their mother were dead.

Many locals openly doubt the suicide narrative and suspect murder. “They fought a lot,” one neighbour said, tears in his eyes. “This doesn’t feel like something she would do to her own babies.”

Shahadat’s mother, Mini Khatun, who works as a domestic helper to support her soldier son, wept bitterly: “I left home and worked hard only for my son’s happiness. How can I accept that my grandchildren are gone like this?”

Bogura Additional Superintendent of Police (Crime) Hussain Md. Raihan confirmed that the case is being investigated from every angle and that the real cause — whether murder-suicide or something else — will be revealed soon.

As the village mourns the loss of a young mother and her two tiny children, the packet of chocolate chips still lies on the floor where Shahadat dropped it, now stained with blood — a cruel reminder of the ordinary morning that ended in unimaginable tragedy.