Police recovered body of a five-year-old girl from a pond at a village in Raozan upazila of the district on Monday.

They suspect that the girl, who had been missing since Friday, was strangled to death after abduction.

Aklima Khatun Tania hailed from village Shahpara in Urkirchar union under Raozan and was a student of Urkirchar Kindergarten School. She was the daughter of Akhtar Shah, an expatriate in Qatar.

Police so far have arrested 14 people including a domestic help in this connection.

Sources said the domestic help Amena Begum and her brother Faruk on Friday morning took Tania out of the house on the pretext of showing her a parrot. Amena then handed over the girl to Harun, a member of the gang, which took her to a deserted place about two km off Tania's house.

Tania's mother Sabina Akhtar Mina and relatives had no idea till yesterday noon about the girl's whereabouts. In the afternoon, they searched the family pond fearing that Tania might have drowned but found nothing.

The villagers on suspicion caught Amena and Faruk and others from different parts of the village and handed them over to police.

Tania's uncle Nasir Shah lodged a murder case with the Roazan Police Station.