A man, apparently unable to bear abject poverty, committed suicide after killing his minor daughter at Dakkhin Khan in the capital yesterday.

Bazlur Rashid, 45, an employee of a clearing and forwarding agency, allegedly killed his daughter Fatema Rashid Barnali, 8, a student of class-Ill when his wife Nadia Akhter Rina and their elder daughter was out of their home in Ashkona yesterday morning.

Neighbour Nasima Begum told The Daily Star that on reaching home around noon, Rina started screaming. Hearing her screams, she and other neighbours rushed to their home and found the body of Bazlur hanging from the ceiling, she said.

They also found Barnali on the bed with bruises on her throat, face and neck, she said, adding that they immediately rushed her to a local clinic where doctors declared her dead.

Bazlur's relatives, colleagues and neighbours said Bazlur was struggling to make ends meet over the last two years as he was not getting much work. Recently, he could not even pay the tuition fee for his elder daughter, who was in class-VIII at Civil Aviation High School in the capital.

Their landlord had hiked the rent of the tin-built house to Tk 4,200 from Tk 3,800, which made things for Bazlur even worse.

Rina, between the fits she was having after losing her husband and daughter yesterday, said over the last one and a half months, Bazlur often told her that the miserable existence was becoming unbearable for him and that he “wanted to leave the world”.

Barnali, to comfort Bazlur, used to tell her father to take her with him when he left the world, Rina said.

Relatives and neighbours said he borrowed money from colleagues but still could not pay rent for the last two months. They said Bazlur was proud and he never took financial help from relatives.

Asadul Hossain Tuku, president of Dhaka Customs Agents' Employees Union, said, "We knew Bazlur, assistant publicity secretary of the union, was going through hard times but we never knew it was so bad."

Officer-in-Charge Lokman Hekim of Dakkhin Khan Police Station said Rina filed two cases with the station, one for the killing of Barnali and the other was for the unnatural death of Bazlur.