Mob vandalises accused Zakir's house again over Fahima rape, murder

An angry mob vandalised the house of Zakir Hossain, the accused in the brutal rape and murder of four-year-old Fahima Akter in Sylhet, for the second time after a human chain on Friday afternoon, May 15.

Following Juma prayers, local residents held a human chain demanding the maximum punishment, including the death penalty, for Zakir. After the demonstration, they marched to his house in the Sonatola village of Kandigaon union under Sylhet Sadar upazila and demolished his tin-shed home, breaking fences, roofs and furniture.

Jalalabad Police Station Officer-in-Charge Shamsul Habib said police arrived at the scene and brought the situation under control. He noted that this was not the first such incident; after Zakir's arrest, locals had attacked his house previously, and police personnel were also assaulted at that time.

The victim, Fahima, was the daughter of day labourer Roisul Haque and a neighbour of Zakir. She went missing on May 6, and her body was recovered two days later from beside a pond near her home.

Zakir was arrested on May 11 and later confessed to the crime. He told police that he had sent Fahima to buy cigarettes. When she returned, he attempted to rape her in an empty room. When she fell unconscious, he strangled her to death. He then kept the body in the room for two days before dumping it under a bamboo and coconut tree by the pond, as he could not dispose of it.