Imam arrested over rape

Police on Friday night arrested an imam of a mosque for raping a teenage girl in Zakiganj upazila.

The arrestee is Kazi Jahid Hasan from Uttarkul village and an imam of Hazarichalk Jame Mosque in Zakiganj upazila.

Habibur Rahman Hawladar, OC of Zakiganj Police Station, said the victim’s father filed a case against the imam and there are many allegations of theft and repression on women against him.

According to the case statement, the 16-year-old ninth grade student used to take Arabic lessons from Kazi Jahid. On June 25, he raped the girl in a hotel in Sylhet city and after she fell sick, he got her board a Zakiganj-bound bus.

On Friday night, police arrested the accused from a house of his in-laws after the girl’s father filed the case with the police station on June 26, said the OC.  

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, a class fifth grader girl in Bishwanath upazila was raped allegedly by an auto-rickshaw driver.

The accused, Abul Kahar of Choudhurygaon village, remains on the loose since the incident and the girl child is undergoing treatment at One-Stop Crisis Centre at Sylhet MAG Osmani Medical College Hospital, said Shamsuddoha, OC of Bishwanath Police Station.

Abul Kahar raped the child while she was going home after school that afternoon. She was found in a roadside ditch hours later and rushed to the hospital, he said.