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Another housewife burned to death

Shaheen Mollah
About a year ago, Asma came to Dhaka from Barisal to save herself from her husband's torture, but by a cruel twist of fate, she was burned to death by her second husband.
Asma, who worked as a garment worker, died on July 17 from burns she suffered after her husband Monir Hossain set her on fire at their house on July 3. She had been under treatment at the Burn and Plastic Surgery Unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) for 14 days.
The 23-year-old woman came to Dhaka in search of a happy life, but she was trapped into getting married to Monir, who earlier married her niece Ferdousi.
Monir married Ferdousi after her first wife died. He had also a son Shuvo, born to his first wife. But the four-year-old boy died from burns on December 29 last year and Ferdousi ended up in jail after Monir filed a case against her on charges of killing the boy.
Then Monir started pressuring Asma, who took shelter at her niece's house at Kachukhet after coming to Dhaka, to get married to him. He also threatened to file a case against her and her family members if she would
refuse.
Three months ago, Monir, his brother Kalam and nephew Nurul Islam came to Asma's garment factory and took her to a house in Gabtoli where she was forced to put her signatures on some papers. Monir then claimed that she has now become his wife.
Asma had narrated her agonising ordeal to this correspondent before her death when she was undergoing treatment at DMCH.
After their marriage, they started living io a shanty at Moti Mia's slum at BaganVan , in Bhasantek. But Monir recently had been pressuring her to be a witness in the Shuvo murder case.
On the night of July 2, Monir came to the shanty in a drunken state and beat up Asma as she refused to be a witness.
At around 3:30am, Monir locked the room from inside and set fire to her.
"I woke up in agonising pain and saw my husband was standing at a corner of the room with the key of the lock. Soon I lost my consciousness," Asma said.
Hearing her screams, neighbours rushed in and rescued her from the room and rushed her to DMCH.
Monir went into hiding after the incident.
Shanu Khan, father of Asma, told The Daily Star, "Asma was the third wife of Monir. His first wife, who is also one of our relatives, died from unknown reasons. Later, he married Ferdousi to look after Shuva, who was one-year-old at that time."
During a visit to Monir’s shanty at Bhasantek, this correspondent talked to some neighbours who said they rushed into the room after hearing the screams of Asma.
"There are only two bath- • -rooms for 30 families in the' slum. The two bathrooms smelled of kerosene on that day. We suspect that Monir might have set fire to the room to kill Asma," said Ali Hossain, a neighbour.
"We saw Monir opening the door with a key and we all tried to beat him as we thought that he tried to kill Asma by setting fire to her, but Asma claimed that a burning mosquito coil sparked off the fire and she requested all to rescue her," he added.
Nazmul Haq, s u b -inspector of Kafrul police station, told The Daily Star. "We visited the shanty and recorded a case against five people, including Monir. We are trying to arrest them."