Six boys, all 13 or below, were going to a shop in Kamrangirchar Friday evening when one of them had his leg accidentally hit by 14-year-old Sifat coming from the opposite direction.

The boy stumbled.

This trivial matter led to an altercation during which Sifat was beaten up.

Whilst Sifat was being beaten up, one of the boys, who is just 12, asked a 10-year-old to fetch his knife.

Sifat was stabbed to death, police said.

Sifat, who worked at a local shoe factory, was stabbed in his thigh around 6:00pm and had been lying on the ground for some time.

A rickshaw-van puller found him and took him to Mitford Hospital from where he was moved to Dhaka Medical College Hospital. He died around 10:00pm, police said.

They said they have detained six children in connection with the incident in Kamrangirchar's Barishal Colony area on the city outskirts.

Mostafa Anwar, inspector (Investigation) of Kamrangirchar Police Station, said the six children were going to a shop to get help for repairing the sound system of a birthday party for the 12-year-old's niece.

One of them accidently had his leg hit by the victim which led to the killing, he said.

Sifat's uncle Abdur Rahman said Sifat was abandoned by his parents when he was a child. His mother moved elsewhere and his father remarried. He used to live with his grandfather in Kamrangirchar.