Dhaka, Oct. 4 -- In a quiet village of Rajshahi, Minarul Islam eked out a living, sometimes as a day labourer, sometimes as a bus driver's assistant, sometimes in the crop fields. Yet whatever he earned could not sustain his family in the face of soaring prices.

Buckling under the burden of NGO loans and daily hardship, Minarul "killed his wife and two children before taking his own life" on Aug 14, according to locals.

In a note found at the scene, he wrote: "We died because of debt and hunger. We could not endure such suffering anymore."

Just a day earlier, the bodies of a mother and daughter were recovered from their home in Burichang, Cumilla. Police believe the mother took poison along with her daughter, driven by "poverty, debt a...