12-yr-old children found involved in murder

Sifat was stabbed to death on Friday evening on the way back to home after playing with friends on the bank of Buriganga river. He was only 12.

His grandfather Asgar Ali has lodged a murder case with Kamrangirchar police station in Dhaka accusing six children aged between 10 and 12.

Police arrested the six children and produced them before the court of Dhaka chief metropolitan magistrate. According to the case statement, two of the six children detained in connection with Sifat's murder are just 10-year-old. Four others are only 12.

The case statement said Sifat stamped on the feet of a 12-year-old child on his way home on Friday evening. Sifat and that boy locked into an altercation over the matter. At one stage, the child along with his peers chased Sifat and stabbed him. Injured Sifat died at Dhaka Medical College.

All the six children, arrested on Sunday, have confessed to being involved in the murder before the court under section 164 of the penal code. They are now in the Child Development Center (CDC) in Tongi.

“I have never dealt with such a case in my career till now. All of the accused in this case are aged between 10 and 12. This is shocking for us that these children are being involved in heinous crimes like murder,” said acting officer-in-charge at Kamrangirchar police station Md Mustafizur Rahman.

According to Sifat's family, his parents got divorced when he was only three months old. Since then his mother was raising him. Sifat was staying with his grandfather in Kamrangirchar area of the capital after his mother got married again.

Sub-inspector at Kamrangirchar police station Md Nuruzzaman told Prothom Alo that “We've identified a ‘youth gang’ during investigating the case. Most of the members of the gang aged between 10 and 12."

The case statement also said the main accused of this gruesome killing is a 12-year-old child who lives in the Kamrangirchar area with his family. He stabbed Sifat in the lower abdomen. The other five arrestees are also residents of Kamrangirchar area. Three of them are students and two work in factories.

Police said three witnesses, aged between 10 and 14, have given testimonies to the Dhaka CMM court.

Sifat's grandfather, Asgar Ali, alleged that family members of the detained children are threatening the witnesses in various ways.

Speaking to Prothom Alo, Kamrangirchar police station OC Md Mustafizur Rahman said, “Nobody could get away with issuing threats to the witnesses' family. Police have already talked to the families of the witnesses and requested them to inform police whenever anyone issues threat to them.”

Deceased's grandfather Asgar Ali told Prothom Alo, “Sifat would work at a carton factory in Kamrangirchar. At the end of the month, he would hand over the salary to me. He did not usually interact with any party and never quarreled with anyone.”

Seeking justice of her son's murder, Sifat's mother Rashida Khatun told Prothom Alo, “Let no one else have the same fate as my son.”

* The report has been rewritten in English by NH Sajjad