Sarwar Jahan, Tahirpur (Sunamganj)

Police have arrested two Yaba-addicted teenage boys in connection with the gang-rape of a seven-year-old underprivileged girl in a border village under Tahirpur Upazila of Sunamganj.

Following the horrific incident, the victim's grandmother filed a formal case naming the two teens at the local police station on Saturday night.

The arrested teens, aged around 13 to 14 years, are residents of the West Para area in Kolagaon border village. Due to statutory legal protections regarding juvenile identities, they are being identified by their pseudonyms, Majnu (neighboring family's son) and Kamal (neighboring family's son).

Sunamganj Superintendent of Police (SP) A B M Zakir Hossain (PPM) confirmed the arrests and the filing of the case on Sunday evening. He stated that the investigating officer has been strictly instructed to complete the probe swiftly and submit the charge sheet before the court at the earliest.

According to the case statement, the incident took place last Thursday evening when the two drug-addicted neighborhood boys, Majnu and Kamal, abducted the seven-year-old child from her home. They locked her inside a toilet in West Para and took turns raping her before leaving her at the site.

Upon returning home, the traumatized child narrated the ordeal to her family, neighbors, and the parents of the accused boys. As the child suffered from continuous internal bleeding, the mother of one of the perpetrators took the victim to a local village quack at the Kolagaon market on Friday and purchased medicine worth Tk 400 to control the hemorrhage.

Subsequently, the suspect's mother and the local village doctor, Bashir Ahmad (also known as Buruj), reportedly actively barred the family from seeking treatment at a government hospital or pursuing legal actions at the police station.

When contacted, the village doctor, Bashir Ahmad, admitted to providing medicine to stop the bleeding but denied masking the crime. "I only provided basic medication to stop the bleeding. I have no knowledge of a gang-rape, and I never barred the victim's family from seeking legal assistance at the police station," Bashir claimed.

On Saturday afternoon, as the child's physical condition deteriorated severely due to non-stop bleeding, local residents intervened to rescue the victim from Kolagaon village and rushed her to the Tahirpur Upazila Health Complex and the local police station for immediate medical treatment and legal assistance.

On Sunday, the investigating officer of the case produced the accused teenagers, Majnu and Kamal, before the Sunamganj Child Court, where the learned judge ordered them to be sent to the Juvenile Development Center (Kishore Shongshonaloy) in Gazipur.

The case's investigating officer, Police Inspector (Investigation) Sushankar Pal, stated that the victim was provided comprehensive medical care at the One-Stop Crisis Center (OCC) of the Sunamganj District Sadar Hospital before being safely handed over to her guardians. He added that the investigation into the case is actively ongoing.