TANGAIL: A woman along with her three daughters have been burnt alive by pouring petrol at a village under Mirzapore upazila in Tangail district.

They were burnt alive by pouring petrol on their house and locking the doors from outside at Dakkhinpara in village Shohagpara under the upazila at about 4am.

Police said the stalker and his accomplices burnt the family alive after the woman refused a marriage proposal of a local stalker for one of her daughters.

The deceased are expatriate Mujibur Rahman's wife Hasna Begum, 35, her daughters Monira Akhtar, 14, a Class IX student, Meem Akhtar, 11, a speech impaired girl, and Nursery student Moly Akhtar, 7.

Neighbours said hearing the shouting and crying, they came out of their houses and found that Hasna Begum's house was burning. They put out the fire and found that the door was locked both from outside.

They broke into the house and found the charred bodies of Hasna and her three daughters lying on bed. Later, police came and removed the bodies.

The bodies were sent to the Mirzapore Kumudini Hospital morgue for postmortem.

Local people alleged that Mujibur's neighbour Jahangir Alam might be involved in the arson as a revenge. Jahangir has been absconding since the incident.

Tangail's Additional Police Super (South) Pankaj Chandra Roy said criminals set fire to the room of the house where the woman and her three daughters were sleeping. They set the house ablaze by pouring petrol through a window of the room sometime after 3am on Tuesday. Instantly, the fire engulfed the entire house. Receiving information, the Fire Service personnel went to the spot but all the four were burnt alive by that time.

The police official said Jahangir Alam, son of neighbour Baharuddin, had long been offering a proposal to Hasna Begum to marry her eldest daughter Monira for a long time. "Jahangir's family members might have been involved in the arson as Hasna Begum refused to accept Jahangir's proposal," he said.

Three people including a rickshawpuller were arrested in connection with the incident. "The arrested rickshawpuller Ali Hossain brought two jerrycans of petrol at Jahangir's house for Tk 200 at night. After questioning him, two more people were arrested," police said.

Police also recovered two jerrycans from the kitchen of Jahangir's house. Besides, a passport of suspect Jahangir was seized.

All the family members of Jahangir Alam have been absconding following the incident.

CORR/ZA