Two Barishal girls rescued in Dhaka

Four days after going missing, two sixth-grade girls, classmates at a school in Barishal, were found early yesterday in their abductors' house in the capital's Sipahibagh area.

The girls were most likely raped since they were abducted on November 15 and brought to Dhaka, Barishal Metropolitan Police (BMP) yesterday said at a press conference, adding that police also arrested the abductors -- Ripon Howlader, 30, and Miraj Seikh, 42.

Ripon is an auto-rickshaw driver and Miraj is a rickshaw-van puller in Najirpur upazila of Pirojpur, said Abdur Rahman Mukur, officer-in-charge (OC) of BMP's Airport Police Station. 

BMP Commissioner Mosharraf Hossain said police tracked down the abductors and located their rental house near Sipahibagh tempo stand in Khilgaon, after one of them called a victim's family on November 17, demanding Tk 5,000 ransom for the girls' release.

A guardian of one of the victims filed a general diary (GD) on November 14 with Airport Police Station in Barishal, saying that the two classmates went missing on their way home that day after school. 

After establishing romantic relations with the girls over phone for months and promising of marrying them, the two criminals tricked the girls into meeting them near their school after class on November 14, said OC Mukur.

The two criminals had been sexually exploiting the girls after they abducted them and brought them into the rented house in Dhaka on November 15, he added.

The girls were returned to Barishal and placed under the custody of police's Victim Support Centre. They will be sent to Sher-e-Bangla Medical College for medical tests soon.

Process was underway to file cases against the accused, on charges of abduction and rape, police said.