A couple and their four minor children were burnt to death as a house of an Ashrayan Project in village Shimer Khal under Dharmapasha upazila in Sunamganj caught fire early Tuesday.
The deceased are Emarul Miah, 45, his wife Poly Akter, 35, sons Palash, 9, Farhad, 7, and Omar Faruk, 3, and daughter Fatema, 5, of the project for landless families in the village under Jayashri union.
Dharmapasha police station officer-in-charge Enamul Haque confirmed the news.
The local union parishad chairman, Sanjay Roy Chowdhury, said that Emarul and his family members used to live in one of the 34 houses of the Ashrayan Project and, like other days, went to sleep Monday night.
Referring to the victims鈥� neighbours, the UP chairman said that the victims鈥� next-door neighbour of Emarul got up after noticing the smoke from Emarul鈥檚 house after midnight past Monday and started calling Emarul and his family members to come out of the house but there was no response from inside.
He said that hearing his cry, other neighbours also came forward and broke open the door of the house.
鈥楾he neighbours recovered the charred bodies of the victims after putting out the fire,鈥� the UP chairman said. 聽
Assistant police superintendent for the Dharmapasha circle of Sunamganj, Ali Farid Ahmed, said that they, immediately after receiving the news, rushed to the spot early in the morning and took steps to keep the spot isolated so that none could destroy the samples of the occurrence.
He said that a Joint team of the Police Bureau of Investigation and the Criminal Investigation Department of the police reached the spot from Sylhet at about 5:30pm on Tuesday.
鈥楾hey collected the samples from the spot for investigation to find out the reason behind the fire,鈥� the ASP said.
He also said that they would investigate whether the incident was just a fire incident or there were other reasons behind it.
鈥榃e are now preparing to send the bodies to Sunamganj Sadar Adhunik Hospital,鈥� he said.
ASP Farid said that none filed any complaint with the police in this connection until Tuesday evening.