A tragic violent outbreak in Kurigram Sadar has left a mother dead and her husband critically injured after their drug-addicted son launched a frenzied knife attack to evade forced admission into a rehabilitation facility.
The fatal incident occurred early on Wednesday, 14 October in Palashbari village, situated within Ward No. 1 of Belgacha Union under Kurigram Sadar Upazila. The deceased has been identified as Munira Begum, aged 56, while her husband, Sardar Ali, 56, a retired textile engineer, sustained severe abdominal injuries and is currently fighting for his life at Rangpur Medical College Hospital. The suspect, their 35-year-old son Moustakin Alam Sumon, fled the scene immediately following the assault and remains at large. Kamal Hossain, Officer-in-Charge of Kurigram Sadar Police Station, confirmed the details of the crime.
According to police reports and community members, Sumon had struggled with severe substance abuse for years, prompting his parents to commit him to drug rehabilitation centres on multiple occasions. Each time, however, he escaped the treatment facilities and returned home, lapsing back into addiction. Faced with his deteriorating behaviour, his parents had recently made arrangements to send him to a specialized recovery centre once again, triggering intense disputes within the household over the preceding days.
The situation escalated fatally in the early hours of Wednesday when staff members from a Sirajganj-based rehabilitation facility arrived at the family residence to escort Sumon to their treatment clinic. Realising why the medical team was waiting outside, Sumon seized a sharp domestic knife from inside the house and rushed his family. He stabbed his mother repeatedly in the chest before turning the blade on his father, stabbing him in the abdomen when the older man attempted to intervene and protect his wife.
Staff from the rehabilitation centre alongside local residents rushed to the scene upon hearing the commotion and conveyed the bleeding couple to Kurigram General Hospital. Attending physicians declared Munira Begum dead upon arrival due to extensive internal hemorrhaging. Given the critical nature of Sardar Ali’s deep abdominal wounds, emergency doctors stabilized him briefly before transferring him to Rangpur Medical College Hospital for advanced surgical intervention.
Family sources revealed that Sumon’s destructive addiction had previously fractured the household, forcing his elder brother, a college lecturer, to move out and live in rented accommodation elsewhere to escape constant domestic volatility. Condemning the tragedy, Abdul Kader, an Assistant Professor at Khalilganj Technical College, remarked that the easy availability of illicit drugs continues to devastate young lives and destroy families, noting that the entire village has been plunged into grief over the murder of a mother who had spent years trying to save her son.
Officer-in-Charge Kamal Hossain stated that multiple police units have been deployed to track down and apprehend the fugitive suspect. Legal proceedings are currently under way at the local police station to file a formal murder case against Sumon.
