A 10-year-old mentally challenged girl was killed allegedly after rape in the capital’s Chawkbazar area on Friday night.
The victim’s relatives found the girl beside a shop near their house in the Islambagh’s Ali Ghat area around 9:00pm.
The victim, profusely bleeding, was rushed to a medicine shop. She was later taken to the Mitford Hospital where she was declared dead.
Police detained a youth on charge of his alleged involvement in the incident.
The detainee, Delwar Hossain, 25, an employee of a local plastic factory, had reportedly tried to rape the girl twice earlier, police said quoting locals.
Mofizuddin, deputy commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, said: “She [the victim] was strangled after being raped.”
“We are quizzing the detainee,” he said adding that details about the incident would be made public after the investigation.
Sohodeb Raj Bangshi, a doctor at Mitford Hospital’s emergency unit, said the victim was brought dead around 11:00pm.
“There was a deep injury mark on her neck. We think she was first raped and then strangulated,” he said.
Police sent the body to Salimullah Medical College morgue for autopsy.
The victim’s father Chand Mia, a boatmen at Buriganga ferry ghat, said the girl was the youngest among their five daughters.
“We did not send her to any school as she was mentally challenged.”
The girl went out of their house after having dinner around 8:00pm that night, her mother Renu said.
“After dinner, she would visit the neighbour’s houses and return home between 9:00pm and 10:00pm to go to bed,” she said.
Azizul Islam, officer-in-charge of Chawkbazar Police Station, said they found the shalwar the victim was wearing before she was allegedly raped, from a nearby lane.
“I think she was raped and killed in a preplanned way. We picked up six youths and released five of them.”
A case was filed in this connection.
