Trapped by Facebook

A 14-year-old girl was found in Rangpur on Tuesday, two days after she fled her home in Dhaka to be with a Pakistani boy she had met on Facebook, said police.

The law enforcers suspect that human traffickers tricked the girl, a class-IX student from Dhamrai area, into fleeing her house. She was rescued in Kamarpara area, said Sub-inspector Monju Mia of Rangpur police (media wing).

Quoting the teenager, police said she met a Pakistani boy, one Mohammad Rafi, on Facebook last month. Later, she fell in love with him.

On Sunday, she took off with her mother's gold ornaments to go to Pakistan through India to meet the boy.

Sumon, an alleged trafficker, was helping her to enter India. He took her to Lalmonirhat but they had to return to Rangpur after having failed to trespass, said police.

However, it was not clear how Sumon and the girl met.

Following their suspicious movement in Kamarpara of Rangpur, locals informed police about their presence on Tuesday morning. Later, police raided the area and rescued the girl.

Sumon fled.

The girl has been handed over to her parents.

Police said they could not immediately verify the Facebook account of the Pakistani boy.

ABM Zahedul Islam, officer-in-charge of Rangpur Sadar Police station, said the girl was perhaps fooled by human traffickers. “She was lucky that police have saved her probably from the clutches of the human traffickers.”

He also said a human trafficking gang was active on Facebook, looking for easy preys.

Police were trying to arrest Sumon, said police sources.