College girl abducted; child 'raped'

Criminals stormed a house in Bagerhat and abducted a college girl indiscriminately stabbing her parents early yesterday while a seven-year-old girl was allegedly raped at Jatrabari in the capital.

Police detained Najimuddin, 28, owner of a five-storey building in North Kajla area in connection with the rape, Anisur Rahman, officer-in-charge of Jatrabari Police Station, told The Daily Star.

When the girl was playing near her home in the morning, Najimuddin allegedly took her into his house luring her with sweets, he added.

The girl returned home bleeding and informed her parents of the matter. Based on her family's complaint, police detained Najimuddin, the OC said.

"The girl has been admitted to One-Stop Crisis Centre (OCC) of Dhaka Medical College Hospital and will be undergoing forensic tests tomorrow [today],” said Bilkis Begum, coordinator of the OCC.

Meanwhile, Fatema-tuz-Zohra Shanta, 21, a second-year student of political science department at Pirojpur Government College and daughter of Shah Alam Gazi of Bagerhat's Sharankhola, was abducted from her home in the wee hours of yesterday, reports our Bagerhat correspondent.

Shanta's father Alam said 15 to 20 people stormed his home in Rajoir village around 1:00am when they were sleeping. He said the intruders first knocked and claimed to be policemen.

As Alam was hesitating to open the door, the men, who had their faces covered, broke into the house and started stabbing him and his wife indiscriminately.

They then took Shanta, and valuables, including gold ornaments and Tk 1 lakh in cash, and left the village in a trawler.

Alam and his wife were under treatment at Sharankhola Upazila Health Complex.

Alam claimed that Shanta's ex-husband Sajib Akan was behind the abduction and attack.

He filed a case against nine people, including Sajib and his father Sobur Akan, with Sharankhola Police Station.

Alam said Shanta got married to Sajib in January, 2015, but divorced him 10 months later as Sajib used to torture her.

Abdul Jalil, officer-in-charge of Sharankhola Police Station, said they were conducting drives to capture the culprits and that they suspect her former in-laws were behind the incident.

He said they picked up the trawler pilot for interrogation.

The Daily Star could not reach Sajib and his family.

Locals held a rally in Raenda Bazar yesterday afternoon to protest the abduction and threatened to keep their business closed if the perpetrators were not caught in a day.