Inside a modest rented house at Ramapur in Cumilla’s Burichang upazila, a mother and her teenage daughter were found dead on Monday night as they are believed to have consumed poison.
Jaheda Akhter, 35, and her 14-year-old daughter Mishu Akhter had only recently moved into the area from Chhagalnaiya upazila of neighbouring Feni district.
Their new start, however, was overshadowed by distress—unseen to the neighbours, but devastatingly real behind closed doors.
Family sources and police revealed that Jaheda and her husband, Mir Hossain, a mason by profession, had been reeling under the pressure of unpaid loans.
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As the debts mounted and repayment remained out of reach, tension within the family grew. Disputes became frequent. And then, the unbearable weight of it all led to this unimaginable end.
“Both mother and daughter allegedly consumed poison on Monday night,” said Md Azizul Haque, officer-in-charge (OC) of Burichang Police Station.
“We recovered the bodies and sent them to Cumilla Medical College Hospital morgue for autopsy,” the OC said.
According to neighbours, the family kept mostly to themselves. “They didn’t speak much. We had no idea things were this bad. We just saw police outside their house... and then heard the horrible news,” said one resident.
Shortly after the incident, Mir Hossain vanished and remains missing.