Sumaiya’s life might have been spared if police had immediately arrested her demented parents when they first learnt about their barbaric torture on the child.
The three-year-old was brutally beaten for six days by her parents in Shahrasti upazila, Chandpur before she succumbed to death on early Tuesday morning. The couple, Emran Hossain, 40, and Amena Begum, 35, had tried to prove they had supernatural powers and attempted to exorcise the influence of jinns on Sumaiya.
Locals are now saying police should have put Sumaiya in protective custody and arrested her parents right away when they first got wind of what was happening.
If they had done so, or even the local government representatives had taken steps to stop the torture, Sumaiya might be alive today, the locals opined.
This correspondent spoke to two local journalists yesterday who had informed police when they visited Sumaiya’s residence after learning about the exorcism.
Requesting anonymity due to security concerns, the journalists said the family was very poor, with Emran the sole earning member with his carpentry job. Sumaiya was their third child among four.
The couple had large debt and staged the act of possessing supernatural powers in order to make money by performing exorcism.
In order to prove their claim, they started beating Sumaiya saying she was under the influence of a jinn and the beating would expel it.
“When we first went to their house in Tarapur Kamarbari village on Monday, we found Amena standing over the child with two sticks in her hands. They kept ignoring our request to stop the beating; in fact, they tried to scare us off with jinn stories,” they said.
The journalists informed Shahrasti police station, and Sub-Inspector Nizamuddin with four constables were sent to investigate. They rescued Sumaiya and took her to Baniachou Bazar for treatment with her uncle’s help.
However, instead of taking her into custody, police put Sumaiya under the care of her maternal grandmother. They also did not arrest the offending parentsat the request of some locals who said they poverty-stricken couple was only trying to make money.
After police left, Amena arranged for Sumaiya to be brought home, who arrived around 3pm. Around 3am on Tuesday, Amena and Emran resumed the exorcism.
Enduring the barbaric treatment from her parents for so long, little Sumaiya finally gave up – she died around 4:30am.
Her death sparked outrage among the locals who gave a good beating to the culprit parents. Later, police recovered Sumaiya’s body from her residence in the morning and arrested Amena and Emran.
The Dhaka Tribune tried to contact Shahrasti police OC Mizanur Rahman to ask if police could have played a more proactive role in the case, but could not reach him.
However, this correspondent was able to reach Chandpur Superintendent of Police Shamsun Nahar.
“The case is being investigated and the criminals will be brought to justice,” she said. When asked about police’s apparent negligence in protecting Sumaiya, she said: “I have yet to receive any such information. If that is the case, we will take action accordingly.”
