Police yesterday arrested three people over their alleged involvement in the rape and murder of a Tripura schoolgirl in Noimile area in the district.

MM Salahuddin, additional superintendent of Dighinala Police Station, yesterday told reporters that Saha Alam, 33, Nazrul Islam alias Bhandari, 32, and Monir Hossain, 38, were arrested from their homes in Dighinala area after police recovered some evidence in connection to the murder.

He added that they were still investigating various aspects of the case.

The incident occurred on Saturday when Kirtika Tripura Purna, 9, left her school to go home during the lunch break.

However, school authorities said she never returned after the break, and when her mother, Onumoti Tripura, a farmer, came back home from work in the evening, she noticed that Kirtika wasn't there either. Worried, Onumoti searched almost every house in their village in Noimile area to look for her daughter.

Later at around midnight, some locals spotted Kirtika's body in a nearby forest.

After police recovered the body, it was sent for autopsy. It is believed that she was murdered after being raped.

Kirtika was a fourth grade student of Noimile Tripura Guchhagram Government Primary School.

The brutal incident sparked protest rallies and meetings in Khagrachhari district town, where demonstrators demanded that the murderers and rapists be given exemplary punishment.

Yesterday morning, students of Khagrachhari Government College boycotted classes and took out a procession that gathered in front of the main gate of Khagrachhari District Judge Court. Members of different student organisations participated in the demonstration under the banner of Bangladesh Marma Students Council and Tripura Students and Youth Front.

Leaders of Greater Chittagong Hill Tracts Hill Students Council, Hill Women's Federation, and the Socialist Students' Front spoke in solidarity with the demonstrators.

Elsewhere, many socio-cultural and student organisations like Bangladesh Tripura Kalyan Sangsad, people from Noimile Guchhagram under the banner of Noimile Guchhagram Residents, Tripura Students' Forum, and Bangladesh Primary Teachers' Association, formed a human chain at Khagrachhari town's Shapla chattar. They too demanded the immediate arrest of the culprits.

Later, Bangladesh Tripura Kalyan Sangsad went to the Khagrachhari Deputy Commissioner's office to hand over a memorandum to be sent to the prime minister in regard to the incident.

With this, at least five girls have been raped in Khagrachhari in the last three months.