A woman and her three daughters were hacked to death at their rented home at Dakatia Nodir Par under Raipur Municipality in Lakshmipur district on Thursday morning.

The locals caught the quadruple-murder suspect, Antar Mozumder, 35, and beat him to death in the morning, marking the fifth death linked to the incident.

Those who were hacked to death are Shahinur Begum, 38, her daughters Saima Akter, 22, also a Dhaka University student, Akra  Akter, 18, and Shifa Akter, 9.

All five are from Homna upazila in Cumilla and used to live in the same building at Dakatia Nodir Par, the police said.

They said that at least seven police members were injured when they were hit by brick chips while trying to bring the aggrieved people under control. 

Raipur Upazila health and family planning officer Baharul Alam said that five critically injured people were taken to the upazila health complex Thursday morning and they found the woman and her eldest and youngest daughters brought dead.

He said that they sent another critically injured daughter to Dhaka Medical College Hospital for better treatment, but she died at Gazaria in Munshiganj while she was on her way to Dhaka.

Baharul said that they found several marks of injury from sharp weapons in the bodies of the woman and her daughters.

He said that they sent Antar Mozumder to Lakshmipur Sadar Hospital where he succumbed to injuries.

Local people said that Shahinur and her four children – three daughters and a son – used to live in the building for several years after the death of Shahinur’s husband in 2019.

They said that Antar entered the house at about 10:00am when Shahinur’s 20-year-old son Sifat left home for his job and started hacking the woman and her three daughters indiscriminately.

The neighbours, on hearing the victims’ screaming, rushed to the spot and caught Antar while fleeing the scene, they said.

They said that they immediately rescued the four victims and took them to Raipur Upazila Health Complex, where Shahinur and two daughters were declared dead. The other daughter was sent to Dhaka for better treatment, they said.

The aggrieved locals beat Antar to death, suspecting him to be the killer of Shahinur and her daughters, said Lakshmipur district assistant superintendent of police for Raipur circle Md Abdur Rashed.

He said that they were investigating the incident to find out the cause of the murders and whether anyone else was involved.

The police officer said that seven policemen were injured when they went to bring the aggrieved people under control.

‘The situation is now under control,’ Abdur Rashed said.

He said that no case was lodged in this connection until 10:00pm on Thursday.

Local people and the police assumed that the incident occurred due to conflict over love affairs, financial transactions, or robbery.