A 40-year-old woman who was in a hurry to drop her two children, aged 7 and 10, to school was brutally stabbed to death by her 25-year-old neighbour after she asked him to make way and let her pass on a waterlogged lane barely 100m from her house.

The horrific murder took place in front of her children around 7am on Monday at Afzalgarh in Bijnor district.

Local residents said Zebunissa got into a brief argument with the accused, Mohammad Sartaj, who quickly went into his house and returned with a knife to attack her even as her children begged him to spare their mother's life.

After repeatedly stabbing Zebunissa, the accused fled the place. Hearing the children cry, a few passersby reached the spot and took the woman to a local hospital but she died on the way. The woman’s body was later sent for post-mortem. Her husband was not at home at the time of the crime.

SP (Bijnor) Neeraj Kumar Jadaun said, “An FIR was filed against Sartaj under IPC sections 302 (murder), 504 (intentional insults) and 506 (criminal intimidation) following a complaint by the victim's father Shakir. The accused has been arrested.”

This is the second killing in the district in 48 hours. About 50km away at Dudhali village under Kiratpur police, a man, 30, was beaten to death by his in-laws over a “marital issue”. In a widely circulated video on Monday, Asif can be seen being hit by a large brick by a few others. Police said the incident hapened on Saturday and Asif's brothers-in-law Liyakat and Najakat have been arrested.

Source: The Times of India