‘I will not spare the scoundrel’

Showing the handmade card she made for her elder sister on her 17th birthday on October 9 last year, eight-year-old Reana Asif (not her real name), the younger sister of an English-medium school student in Dhanmondi who died after rape, said, "I will not spare the scoundrel who killed my sister. I want justice."

The card, kept in a paper bag on her bookshelf, reads, "Apu, you are the best sister in the world and I love you."

Reana would frequently make cards and handmade gift items for her elder sister, with a small and simple note to express her love. Sometimes, the gift was a box of earrings, which their mother would buy for them, or sometimes a funny sketch of her sister.

The elder sister would preserve all the cards and gifts on her bookshelf. "But now, these have become keepsakes," Reana said.

The girl's father, a businessman, filed a case with Kalabagan Police Station against Fardin Iftekhar Dihan -- an 18-year-old who has recently passed his A-level examinations -- over the rape and murder of his daughter.

In the case statement, he said Dihan tricked his daughter into going to his flat in Kalabagan's Dolphin Golly on Thursday (January 7) and raped her when Dihan's family members were away.

While visiting the victim's house, the first thing one will notice is her school identity cards hanging on one corner of the drawing room, which clearly indicate that she was only 17, although it created a debate on her age after she died.

The Zoom meeting ID and passwords for each subject written on the sticky notes, and the routine for classes for 2021 (with some highlights) are still on the wall in front of her bed. The books and notes are still on the table, which she kept the night before she was raped and murdered by the perpetrators on January 7. A key ring -- a memento given by a friend -- still hangs from the cupboard.

"She was a very attentive student and was preparing herself for the O-level exams. She had been attending six online lectures a day," the victim's mother said.

"Last week, she asked me to manage the money for her registration which started last Sunday and today [Wednesday] is the last day of the registration. Her friends have completed the process, but my daughter is not in this world. How can I accept this?" the mother broke out in tears.

"I never leave her alone anywhere. Before the pandemic broke out, her father would drop her at school, and after class, I would take her home," she said. "I still cannot believe that this actually happened to us.

"My daughter would love small things, like a simple mirror on her wall or some money plants which I bought for her. She would water those every day and tried to keep her room clean and tidy," said the mother.

According to the mother, her daughter did not go there (Dihan's flat) willingly. "She was entrapped, I must say."

"She was tortured severely and it was clear in the photos that were taken by my friend while she found my daughter's body at Anwar Khan Modern Hospital. She also had a bruise in her thumb," the mother said.

She said her daughter even called her father at 12:19pm, but he missed that call. She left home around 11:45am.

"She might have wanted to tell her father about the danger she went through. But now, people are blaming her for the whole thing. But no one is talking about that they don't have the right to rape and kill her," the mother added.

"I want the speedy trial of the perpetrators," she said.