The picture at Niladri Chattopadhyay's village home is indeed heart-rending.

His family members were all stunned. They did not know how to express their shock at the death of Niladri, who was known as Nantu among his family and friends.

Niladri's mother Arpana Chattopadhyay had been wailing ever since she came to know about her son's murder. While her relatives and neighbours were trying to console her, she was crying out, “1 forbade Nantu to go to Dhaka. But he did not pay any heed to my words."

His father Tarapado Chattopaddyay, however, was speechless. He was sitting in a corner of the front yard at his house in Chalisha village under Tona union of Pirojpur Sadar Upazila.

Niloy's only sister Jayashri Chattopadhyay, who is a first year student of Pirojpur Government Suhrawardi College in the department of English, had a blank look on her face. "Her eyes have dried out," one of her neighbours commented.

"What's my brother's fault? They [killers] murdered him brutally. I want an exemplary punishment to the killers of my brother," Jayashri said loudly.

Niladri's neighbours were equally shocked. They also demanded an immediate trial of the killers.

Family sources said that he had visited the village home two weeks ago during the Eid holiday. It was then his mother, having learnt about the death threats, requested her to stay back in the village. But he reassured her saying not to worry about those threats.

Niloy passed the SSC exams from Tezdaskathi High School and his HSC from Pirojpur Government Suhrawardi College. Then he went to Dhaka for higher education, said Niladri's uncle Nirmol Chattopadhyay, who is a lecturer at a college in the upazila.