A chilling silence hung over Muslimbagh area of Keraniganj on Thursday night as police recovered the slaughtered bodies of a mother and her teenage daughter from a room of a coaching centre, sending shockwaves through the locality.

The victims were identified as Rokeya Begum (32) and her daughter Fatema (14), an eighth-grade student. Their bodies were found with throats slit inside a room on the second floor of a building where a coaching centre operated.

Keraniganj Model Police Station Officer-in-Charge M Saiful Alam said local residents alerted police after sensing a strong stench of decomposition coming from the building. 

Acting on the information, police reached the scene around 10pm and recovered the bodies.

“The condition of the bodies suggests that they were murdered approximately two to three days ago,” the OC said.

Police detained four people from the building for questioning and brought them to the police station. However, the motive behind the brutal double murder remains unknown.

Local residents said the coaching centre was located on the building’s second floor. Rokeya Begum used to come there with her daughter Fatema, who studied in Class Eight, for private tutoring. How and why the mother and daughter met such a horrific fate remains a mystery to both police and residents.

The sight of the lifeless bodies of the mother and her child has left the area grief-stricken, with neighbours struggling to comprehend the brutality inflicted upon them.

Police prepared the inquest reports at the scene and sent the bodies to Mitford Hospital morgue for autopsy. 

A case is currently under process at Keraniganj Model Police Station, the OC added.

As the investigation continues, the unanswered questions surrounding the killing of a mother and her young daughter weigh heavily on the community, turning a place of learning into a scene of unspeakable tragedy.