The lifeless bodies of four members of a family were discovered in the quiet lanes of Bamunshikar in Poba on the outskirts of Rajshahi city, on the morning of Friday, August 15.
The air was thick with grief as neighbours, police, and local officials gathered outside a modest home where hope had quietly slipped away.
The victims, Minarul Islam, 30; his wife Monira Begum, 28; their 13-year-old son Mahim; and their one-and-a-half-year-old daughter Mithila, were found dead in what authorities believe was a murder-suicide driven by unbearable despair.
At the centre of it all was a handwritten note, smeared with sorrow and finality, left behind by Minarul.
"We embrace death due to debt, lack of food."
These simple, devastating words opened a window into a life crushed under the weight of poverty, shame, and helplessness.
In a longer message scrawled in shaky handwriting, Minarul wrote: "I killed everyone with my own hands. This is because if I die, who will my children and grandchildren hope for? They will get nothing but pain and sorrow. We died because of debt and lack of food. So it is better for us to die than to live. We will not have to ask anyone for anything. No one will have to be inferior to anyone for me. My father has become inferior to many people for me. He will not have to be anymore. I am gone forever. I want everyone to be well. Thank you."
Each sentence is a quiet scream, a confession not of malice, but of surrender.
According to police, Minarul first strangled his wife with her veil, then his infant daughter with a towel, followed by his young son. He then took his own life.
The bodies were discovered around 9:00am, lying in the same room where laughter, once, might have echoed.
Neighbours, still trembling with disbelief, recall a family slowly fading into silence.
While some locals mention Minarul’s past struggles with gambling and drug addiction, they also speak of a man overwhelmed – someone who sold his father’s land just to settle debts, only to sink deeper into desperation.
Rajshahi Metropolitan Police Spokesperson Gaziur Rahman confirmed that the bodies have been taken to Rajshahi Medical College Hospital morgue, and a formal investigation is underway. “We are looking into all aspects, financial, psychological, and social,” he said. “This is not just a crime scene. It’s a cry for help we failed to hear.”
As the city mourns, questions linger in the humid August air: How many more families are teetering on the edge? How many are eating one meal a day, hiding their hunger behind closed doors? And how long will society look away until the next tragedy forces us to see?