Mother of slain children arrested

The mother of the slain Bashabo siblings has been arrested early morning yesterday from the same neighbourhood in the capital.

Police arrested the mother, Tanzin Rahman, 28, around 4:30am while she was wandering aimlessly on the roads in the vicinity of the house where she lived.

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She had been missing since the hacked bodies of her two children -- Mashrafe Bin Mahbub Abrar, 7, and Humaira Bin Mahbub Takia, 6 -- were recovered on Friday night.

Her husband Mahbubur Rahman, a computer operator at Wasa (Water Supply and Sewerage Authority), filed a case with Sabujbagh Police Station yesterday accusing his wife, whom he married in 2008, according to the case statement.

Tanzin, during primary interrogation, has admitted of committing the gruesome incident, police claimed.

The court of Metropolitan Magistrate Golam Nabi placed her on a five-day remand after Sabujbagh police produced her before it with a seven-day remand prayer, said court sources.

Laila Noor, a relative of Mahbubur, said she took Tanzin to a psychiatrist at Green Road a couple of years ago and that the mother never took good care of her kids.

The police are investigating whether anyone else is involved in the killings, Abdul Kuddus, officer-in-charge of Sabujbagh Police Station, told The Daily Star adding that they are also investigating about her mental instability.

Hafiza Islam, who rents a neighbouring flat on top of a six-storey building, said Tanzin was quiet person who loved gardening and decorating her house and she never saw her involved in altercation with anyone. 

Her a sister-in-law Smriti Akter said, “She loved her children very much and she cared for them.” 

The siblings were hacked to death in their home in the city's North Bashabo on Friday evening.

Abrar was a madrasa student while Takia was student at a local school. They all were home on Friday as it was a public holiday.

Their father found the two bodies in two separate rooms after he returned home following evening prayers. A machete was also recovered from the flat.

Sources at Dhaka Medical College morgue, where autopsies of the bodies were conducted yesterday, said hacking marks with sharp object were found in the throats.