Man convicted for wife’s, two children’s murder

A BANGLADESHI has been found guilty of the murder of his wife and two children at their family home in East Ham over 12 years ago.

Immediately after committing the crime, Mohammed Abdul Shakur, 45, fled to his home country.

He was found guilty at the Old Bailey on Thursday (31) of the murder of his wife, Juli Begum, 26, and their two daughters, six-year-old Thanha Khanum and five-year-old Anika Khanum.

The death of the trio came into light when the police were called to the family address in Nelson Street, on January 1, 2007, Metropolitan Police said.

The cops reached the crime spot following a call from a concerned family member who had not seen or heard from Begum for around 10 days, and the children had not returned to school after the Christmas break.

The police had to force their entry into the house. There they found the bodies of Begum and her two children, which were concealed under a duvet in a rear bedroom.

The cause of death for Begum was initially inconclusive but later ruled to be consistent with asphyxiation.

Thanha’s cause of death was recorded as consistent with head trauma, while her younger brother was confirmed as having been killed by strangulation with a ligature.

Detectives had launched a murder investigation and Shakur was quickly identified as a suspect after it emerged that he had purchased a one-way ticket to Bangladesh at the time of the murder.

Enquiries to trace and arrest Shakur were undertaken in Bangladesh and India after information suggested that he was in the Assam region of India, close to the border of Bangladesh.

In 2013, Shakur was arrested for being in India illegally.

The formal extradition proceedings began and Shakur said he would not oppose extradition.

Shakur was finally extradited back to the UK in April this year.

He was taken to Heathrow police station, where he was charged with three counts of murder.

Detective Sergeant Amjad Sharif, Specialist Crime investigator, said: “We will likely never be able to understand what could have driven Shakur to snap and end the lives of his wife and two daughters so violently and callously.

“...I would also like to thank our international policing counterparts in Bangladesh and India, and especially the Foreign and Commonwealth representative who assisted us so well in circulating Shakur as a wanted man to local police, and indeed informing us when he was located...”

Shakur and Begum had an arranged marriage in Bangladesh in 1999, and she had subsequently sponsored his immigration visa so that they could return to the UK.

However, incidents of domestic conflict began to emerge just a few months into the marriage.

The police were called to domestic incidents at the couple’s home, but the allegations were never substantiated and so no one was ever charged.