Anwara Begum, the 22-year-old housemaid, was pregnant for five months.

Minutes before her death, Anwara blamed Hafizul, a male domestic help of the house where she worked, for forcing her to undergo abortion after she conceived.

Hafizul seduced her with the false promise of marriage, she said.

Anwara, a divorcee, lived with her mother in a slum at Merul Badda. She had been working at the house at Hazipara in Khilgaon for a year.

"Anwara developed relations with Hafizul after she started working at the house. Hafizul also promised that he would marry her within a short time," the victim's mother, Julekha Begum, said.

But when Anwara became pregnant, Hafizul began to press her for abortion, she said.

At around 11:00pm Tuesday, an elderly man took Anwara to her house as she was bleeding. "Anwara told me that Hafizul forced her to undergo abortion at a Khilgaon clinic," her mother said.

Julekha took Anwara to the clinic again in the night. Clinic officials advised them to go to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital.

Anwara was finally taken to the hospital at 3:00pm yesterday, but the doctors declared her dead.

Her mother, however, could not mention the name of the one-storey clinic.

Anwara was married to one Abu Taher of her village, Char Malgaon in Damuddya, Shriatpur, two years ago. After her divorce a year later, she came to the city with her mother.

Ramna police went to the house to search for Hafizul, but he was not there.