13-year-old girl killed after ‘rape’

A sixth-grader was killed allegedly after rape in Rangpur’s Pirganj upazila yesterday.

Suravi Akter, 13, was the daughter of Hiru Mia from Chandipur village and was a student of Chandipur High School.

Police said the girl used to live with her maternal grandparents as her parents, who are garment workers, stay in Dhaka.

On Saturday morning, Suravi went out to attend tuition classes around 7:00am, but did not return on her usual time, said Saroj Kumar, officer-in-charge of Pirganj Police Station.

Later, family members and villagers recovered her body from a bush about 500 meter away from their house around 10:30am, the OC said. 

Talking to journalists, the victim’s grandfather said she might have been murdered after rape when she was returning home.

Police, however, found no evidence of rape in their primary investigation.

The body was sent to Rangpur Medical College morgue for an autopsy.

The victim’s father, who was on his way to Rangpur from Dhaka till filing the report around 6:30pm last evening, would file a case after arriving in Rangpur, said her family members.

Meanwhile in Bogura, a ten-year-old female madrasa student was allegedly raped by an office assistant of the madrasa yesterday.

The accused Alamgir Hossain Bablu, 45 is from Thalta Majhgram village of Bogura’s Nandigram upazila.

Alamgir stopped the girl around 10:30am when she was on her way to a local community clinic and took her to his home to rape her, said Shakhwat Kabir, OC of Nandigram Police Station.

Hearing the girl screaming, locals rushed to Bablu’s home and rescued her, the OC said, adding that the locals also caught the perpetrator and later handed him over to police.

During primary investigation, Bablu admitted that he had raped the girl, the OC also said.

In Bandarban, a man was sued yesterday on charge of raping a tenth-grader in Lama upazila on Friday.

The accused, Amir Hossain, 25, is a resident of Noapara area in the upazila.

Quoting family members, police said Amir forcibly took the girl to a nearby shop and raped her in the early morning when she went out for toilet.

Talking to The Daily Star, one of the victim’s family members alleged that police delayed in recording the case due to the interference of local Ward Councillor Md Hossen Badsha.

Oppela Raju Naha, OC of Lama Police Station, however, denied such allegation.

Contacted, Badsha said they had tried to solve the matter through arbitration.

In Savar, police yesterday arrested the prime accused in a case filed over gang-raping a woman in Dhaka’s Dhamrai upazila on Monday.

Jashim, 26, from Tangail’s Nagarpur upazila, was arrested from his village home.

Our Rangpur, Bogura, Bandarban and Savar correspondents contributed to this report.