Kolkata: A 21-year-old man hacked three children to death with a knife and critically injured another in Murshidabad’s Raghunathpur village on Thursday afternoon. Police have arrested the accused. He was produced before court on Friday.Five-year-old Manifa Khatun, Anisha Khatun, six-year-old Nusrat Jahan and 11-year-old Ishrat Jahan were playing in the courtyard of their house when Golam Sarwar (alias Badshah), attacked them with a knife, according to the police.Locals heard the children screaming for help. Upon reaching the spot, they saw the children in pools of blood writhing in pain.They rushed Manifa to Mahisail Rural Hospital, where she was declared dead. Nusrat and Ishrat died of severe injuries to the head and neck. Anisha is critically injured.Police are probing what motivated Sarwar to allegedly commit the murders. A police officer said locals believe he could have been under the influence of intoxicants at the time of the alleged crime.Another local has claimed Sarwar had been named in the murder of a teenager who was protesting the spread of alcoholism in the area last year.Manifa’s mother Ismatara Khatun has demanded the death penalty for the accused.Jayanta Chowdhury, assistant director of Child in Need Institute, an NGO, said children are often easy targets for people dealing with anger, frustration and other behavioural problems.
