Student Rape, Murder: Police looking for a missing security guard

Police are looking for a security guard of the building where the 17-year-old girl was raped before her death on Thursday.

Abul Hasan, assistant commissioner (New Market Zone) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, said, "We are looking for him. He helped the accused carry the victim out of the house. He may know something."

Abdul Motalib, another security guard of the building in the capital's Kalabagan, said the man police were looking for was Dulal, aged about 45.

"He was on duty that day. He used to live here. His belongings are here," Motalib said, adding that Dulal had not been answering his phone.

A medical officer and a ward-boy of Anwer Khan Medical College Hospital, where the girl was taken at first, said the accused and another young man brought the girl in a car.

Doctors said she died before they reached the hospital.

The girl's father filed a case with Kalabagan Police Station, accusing 18-year-old Fardin Iftekhar Dihan who recently passed A levels.

Meanwhile, grieving family members of the girl yesterday asked why three friends of the accused were released by police.

At his village home in Kushtia, the father told reporters that Kalabagan police didn't name the three friends as accused in the case, saying that the case would be "weak" if they did.

Abul Hasan said police released them because they didn't find any involvement of the trio. "We investigate all possible things linked to an incident. We have found evidence at the crime scene."

He added that officers might examine whether the accused took any drugs that day, he added.

Police have collected CCTV footage from all possible sources and are examining the mobile phones of the accused.

Sohel Mahmud, head of forensic department at Dhaka Medical College, told reporters that doctors found evidence of rape and injury marks on the girl's body. He added that the girl died due to hemorrhagic shock and excessive bleeding.

A Dhaka court recorded Dihan's confessional statement on Friday and sent him to jail.

After her death, Kalabagan police requested the DMC forensic department to find out the age of the victim and mentioned in the inquest report that she was 19.

Her mother alleged that when she objected and showed police her daughter's passport, the policemen got angry and left the body at the morgue for hours.

Contacted, police said the hospital document mentioned her age as 19.

Mohammed Aseer Intisar Saarim, emergency medical officer at Anwer Khan hospital, said, "She was brought dead. I asked the accused what happened to her. He said she was his girlfriend… he insisted that I write her age as 19… I said she looked younger. But he objected. Later, the victim's mother came and said she was 17."

The girl was laid to rest at a graveyard in Gopalpur, Kushtia, following a namaz-e-janaza attended by thousands of people.

Locals formed a human chain on both sides of the road in Kamalapur Bazar demanding justice.

Grieving friends of the girl lit candles in her memory on Dhanmondi-27 and demanded changes in education.

"We want everyone directly or indirectly linked with the rape to be investigated," said Neha Zaman, a friend of the girl.

Besides demanding justice, the students and parents also demanded sex education and institutional interventions to teach boys about respect and gender.

"Sex education is a taboo in our school. The teachers feel awkward," said Neha.

Her friends Rudmila and Afrin said the educational institutes have not been their allies while some teachers were victim-blaming by questioning why the girl went to the boy's apartment.

Mumtahina Ritu, a parent with two children in the school, said, "Sex education in schools is needed in this day and age. Secrecy is of no use, because our children learn about sex from other sources. Guardians need to talk to their children about sex."

Boys and girls also need to be taught about abuse at the schools, she added.

Sharmin Iffa, whose son was a close friend of the girl, stated that parents needed to be more involved in their children's lives. "The girl used to come to my house as well, because she was friends with my son. It was up to me to make sure that they were all safe."