October 21, 2024
DHAKA – A girl aged around nine is struggling for her life at a hospital due to injuries she received when raped by an unknown man in the capital on October 12.
Doctors said the girl was in critical condition with profuse bleeding when she was brought to the hospital.
Her mother said, “I cannot bear to see her lying in such a condition.”
She added that her daughter left home on the night of October 12 to see a puja mandap in the neighbourhood, but did not return that night.
The next morning, she came back, bleeding and barely able to walk or talk.
“A man picked her up in a CNG-run three-wheeler to the empty first floor of a building and raped her there,” said Inspector Mehedi Hasan of Banani Police Station.
The man then put her on a bus heading towards Mohakhali so that she could return home, he added.
A case was filed on October 14 over the incident, but no one has been arrested.
“We have not been able to identify the crime scene or the suspect. We will conduct a raid after talking to the girl once she is well enough to speak,” he said.
Police have collected CCTV footage from near her neighbourhood and the clips would help them identify the suspect, he said.
A surgeon at the hospital said, “She was bleeding profusely and needed surgery. We created an opening in her abdomen to allow stool to bypass the injured parts. We had to put in a catheter to assist with urination. She will have to be in this state for at least three months.”
The physician added that forensic examinations had been done.