Girl ‘takes own life’ during police raid

A girl "took her own life" on Monday night after police tried to detain her mother from their Pallabi home in the capital for refusing to bribe them, family members have alleged.

Plainclothes policemen raided their home around 7:00pm. Soon after, rumors spread in the neighbourhood that a girl was strangulated to death by cops during an "anti-narcotics drive".

Angry locals then besieged the police team and clashed sporadically with the law enforcers for about four hours until midnight.

They also vandalised at least 10 vehicles, including two police motorbikes.

Younger sister of victim Baishakhi Akhter, 16, alleged that Baishakhi hanged herself in a room on the second floor of the four-storey building owned by their grandparents.

A police officer locked the room from the outside after she threatened to commit suicide if police detained her mother, alleged the sister.

Pallabi Police Station Sub-inspector Zahir Uddin and Assistant Sub-inspector Ferdous Rahman, who conducted the raid, did not respond to our calls and text messages.

Mirpur Division Additional Deputy Commissioner of police Nazmul Hasan Firoz said the family ran a drug business and that the police team conducted the drive upon a tip-off.

He said Baishakhi had four drug cases against her and her mother, Lovely Begum, is a suspect in seven cases. Nevertheless, the police authorities will investigate the incident and take action accordingly.

Deputy Commissioner of Mirpur Division Police Jasim Uddin Mollah said they formed a committee to probe the matter.

However, he defended the raid by plainclothes cops, saying the team went to recover narcotics and the police station concerned was aware of it.

Lovely, 45, said that on Saturday a police team in plainclothes blackmailed them into paying Tk 50,000. They threatened to implicate them in a case. Another team took Tk 10,000 from them the next day.

On Monday evening, a separate team led by SI Zahir and ASI Ferdous raided the house and demanded Tk 5 lakh.

"They claimed that we run a drug business here. But they did not find any drugs," she said, adding that police threatened to take her away when she refused to pay the money.

She admitted to The Daily Star that she used to sell cannabis and Yaba, but she left the trade a year ago.

Lovely alleged that she suffered some bruises as police and their informants tried to forcibly take her away.

THE RAID

Baishakhi's family members said SI Zahir and ASI Ferdous along with five to six informants started banging the gate of their house at Aradsha Nagar on Monday evening.

Her grandmother, Rahima Khatun, said she told the police to go away as her sons were not home. SI Zahir then threatened to arrest Lovely.

At one stage, Rahima opened the gate and the policemen went straight to the top floor where Lovely, Baishakhi and her husband Mintu were.

As police wanted to search Lovely's room, Lovely and Baishakhi resisted, resulting an altercation.

"At one point, ASI Ferdous slapped Baishakhi and dragged her down to the second floor. He then kicked and slapped Baishakhi and locked her in a room," said Baishakhi's sister, who claimed to have witnessed the incident.

She also said Baishakhi insisted from inside the locked room that there was no narcotics in the house.

As the policemen were unmoved, Baishakhi threatened to take her own life if the police did not open the door, said Baishakhi's sister and her aunt Rozina Begum.

They alleged that ASI Ferdous then went upstairs and informed SI Zahir about the threat.

Zahir grabbed a scarf that was hanging on a rope on the third-floor balcony and gave it to Ferdous, who then threw it through the window and asked Baishakhi to do whatever she wanted, they said.

After a while, ASI Ferdous peeked through the window and saw Baishakhi hanging.

On the news of her death, locals lay siege to the house and clashed with the cops.

Additional police force led by DC Jasim Uddin Mollah rushed there and brought the situation under control around 1:00am, when this correspondent was present at the scene.

Victim's uncle Mohammad Sumon said police recovered Baishakhi's body around three hours after her death.