5-year-old girl ‘raped’

A youth allegedly raped the five-year-old daughter of an expatriate Bangladeshi at Dulahazara in Chakaria upazila in Cox's Bazar district on Monday.

The seriously injured victim has been admitted into Cox's Bazar Sadar Hospital while the alleged rapist has been on the run since the incident.

Police and Dulahazara union chairman Nurul Amin confirmed the incident.

The victim's father works in Oman while his family lives in ward no 4 of Ulubunia in Dulahazara union. The rapist Rahim Uddin, 20, is a son of their neighbour Akter Ahmed.

The girl's mother was working outside their house on Monday noon when Rahim Uddin lured the girl and trapped her in a room of her own house and raped her.

Rahim Uddin fled the scene when the girl lost consciousness.

The child was rushed to Chakaria upazila health complex from where she was sent to Cox's Bazar District Sadar Hospital when her condition deteriorated.

Altaz Ahmed, grandfather of the victim, said the gravely injured girl is being treated at the hospital's One Stop Crisis Centre.

The hospital's resident medical officer Shaheen Md Abdur Rahman Chowdhury said the girl was in critical condition when brought to the hospital and needed stitches.  A psychologist is also seeing her at the moment.

The Officer-In-Charge of Chakaria Police Station Bakhtiar Uddin said he has been made aware of the incident and police have already twice raided the area to catch the alleged rapist but has not yet been able to. 

Police will arrest the man even if the victim's family does not file a case, he said.