‘Murdered by mother’

The two Banasree siblings were killed by their own mother, as she was “worried about their future”, Rab claimed yesterday, citing primary interrogation.

“She [the mother] used to think that her kids wouldn’t be able to do anything when they grow up,” said a Rab statement.

Mahfuza Malek Jasmine first strangled her daughter Nusrat and then son Alvi at their apartment in the capital on Monday afternoon, Rab Media Wing Director Commander Mufti Mahmud Khan told a press briefing at the force’s headquarters.

The mother used her daughter’s scarf to strangulate them, after the house tutor of one child left the flat around 5:10pm, said the Rab official.

He claimed to have gleaned the information from the mother during primary interrogation.

However, further investigations will reveal if there are any other motives, he added.

Relatives and experts on social behaviour, however, said the Rab version was unbelievable.

Relatives claimed both the kids were meritorious and had been studding at reputed schools. In addition, the family was financially solvent. So there is no apparent reason for the mother to be worried about their future.

The house owner said the couple always paid their rent on time while neighbours said they had no knowledge that the couple was in debt.

Rab officials support this version, saying it was a “solvent family living in peace”.

Nusrat Aman Aroni, 14, and her six-year-old brother Alvi Aman were found unconscious at their apartment on Monday afternoon. They were declared dead at Dhaka Medical College Hospital that evening.

It was initially believed that they died from food poisoning before autopsies suggested they might have been murdered. There were bruises on both the bodies.

On Wednesday, Rab brought the children’s parents and an aunt from their hometown in Jamalpur for quizzing.

Rab had also picked up five persons, including relatives, security guards and a female house tutor, for interrogation.

At the press briefing, Commander Mufti said the two kids had two house tutors. On that day, after one tutor left, Jasmine asked her daughter to go to the bedroom and take rest. Alvi was asleep in the bedroom as well.

There was a scuffle during the strangulation and at one point, both mother and daughter fell on the floor, the Rab official claimed.

Positive about Nusrat’s death, Jasmine killed her son in sleep, using the same scarf, he added.

To cover it up, she made up the food-poisoning story and called her husband over the phone, saying the children were feeling sick. She also called her sister, he said.

During primary interrogation, the mother said she was anxious about her children’s education. However, she “behaved normally” at the time of quizzing.

Jasmine has a master’s in Management and taught in a college from 2005-2007. She was serious about her kids’ education, Mufti said.

Additional Superintendent of Police Mostaque Ahmed of Rab-3 claimed to have learned that the mother attempted to commit suicide a couple of times in the past. He however did not say why.

RELATIVES, EXPERTS DUMFOUNDED

Relatives in Jamalpur, where the couple is form, said they did not believe the Rab version of the incident. Jasmine’s mother said she was unaware that her daughter ever had any mental disturbance.

She said Jasmine and Amanullah got married in 2002. Jasmine was a teacher in a Jamalpur college for a couple of years, before moving to Dhaka.

Contacted, Prof Nehal Karim, who teaches sociology at Dhaka University, said, “The way I have watched and followed the news since yesterday morning, it seems highly improbable to me that this woman killed her own children without any other motives.”