Two suspects arrested in Lakshmipur child’s rape and murder

Police have taken into custody the two main suspects in the rape and killing of a child that took place in Ramganj upazila of Lakshmipur on March 23. The main suspect, Shah Alam Rubel, was arrested while he was on his way to Khulna Sunday night. Before that, his accomplice and friend Borhan Uddin was picked up by police from the upazila’s Noagoan area. Acting on a tip, Officer-in-Charge Tota Miah and Sub-Inspector Md Kausar Ahmed of Ramganj police station arrested Shah Alam as he was leaving for Khulna. Lakshmipur Superintendent of Police (SP) ASM Mahtab Uddin confirmed the news of arrests at a press briefing at Ramganj police station on Monday. The SP said: “On March 23 afternoon, Rubel lured his niece Nusrat Jahan Nishu, 8, from her home by giving her ice-cream and letting her watch TV. He strangled Nusrat to death after raping her.” “Nusrat was wrapped with jute bag and kept inside Rubel’s house for two days. Later, her body was taken by a CNG-run auto-rickshaw, three kilometres away from Rubel’s house and thrown under a bridge, Rubel said in his confessional statement,” SP Mahtab added. Police also seized the auto-rickshaw used to carry Nusrat’s body, a bag, her shoes and the rattan peel (shital pati) used to wrap her. Police had recovered the child’s body from under the bridge in Brahmapara area of Kanchanpur on March 26. The autopsy report showed Nusrat was murdered after being raped. Her mother filed a murder case at Ramganj police station, accusing a number of unnamed suspects. Since the incident, social activists and students from different educational institutions held public demonstrations demanding the arrest and punishment of Nusrat’s killers.