12-yr-old house help found dead in Uttara
Over a thousand residents of the capital's Turag area took to streets yesterday, protesting death of a domestic help in Uttara, claiming it was murder.
The victim is Boishakhi, 12, a resident of Baunia Badh slum of Turag. Her body was found hanging with a scarf from a grille on a window, at her employer's house at Uttara sector-3.
Ali Hossain Khan, officer-in-charge of Uttara Paschim Police Station said they recovered the body after breaking down the door of a room of the Uttara flat around 2pm.
Police informed relatives of Boishakhi after recovering the body, he said, adding that the cause of death will be known after autopsy.
As the news spread, over 1,000 residents of Baunia came to the spot and blocked road-18 of Uttara sector-3, and shouted slogans demanding immediate arrest of the employers, police and locals said.
The agitators also threw brickbats at the house and set fire to tyres and wood on the street, and obstructed fire service officials from dousing the fire for some time, the OC said.
Ali said Boishakhi's employer Rifat Ferdous lives in the flat with his wife and a child. He said Rifat informed them when they found a room of their flat locked from inside and their house help was missing.
Nazrul Islam, office secretary of Uttara sector-3 Kallyan Samity, told The Daily Star that he informed police about the incident, after Rifat called him and said his maid was not opening the door.
Rifat, an employee at a private company, told journalists that he and his wife woke up later than usual -- around 11am -- yesterday, as it was a national holiday. They initially couldn't find Boishakhi anywhere in the house, and later found that their child's play room was locked from inside. They called her out repeatedly but she did not respond, so they called the police.
Mithu Rahman, a cousin of Boishakhi, said they are preparing to file a murder case.
Azibul Islam, father of Boishakhi, said he had dropped his daughter at the house on Monday, after a 10-day leave on account of her grandmother's death.
Boishakhi had been working at the house for the last one and half months, he said.
“I saw the dead body, hanging with a grille of a window. But she was beaten to death,” he said.
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