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asked for their relatives’ address. Then the woman told the victims to walk in a certain direction for a few minutes to get to their relatives’ house.

The girls started walking forward. Then five youths suddenly appeared before them and forced them onto a boat. The youths took the boat to a remote place and raped the girls.

When the victims started screaming, locals rushed to the spot and rescued the girls. But the youths managed to flee.

Yesterday, one of the victims filed a case against five youths with Tongi West Police Station. Of the accused, three were identified as Sharif Hossain, 22, Nayeem, 22, and Russell, 19.

The girls were sent to Shaheed Taj Uddin Ahmad Medical College Hospital in Gazipur for tests.

The victims knew one of the accused, said Emdadul Haque, officer-in-charge of the police station.

In Narayanganj, Rab arrested a man for raping a four and half-year-old girl in Sonargaon upazila on Tuesday night.

The arrestee is Jibon, 27, a resident of Olipur of the same upazila.

Quoting the victim’s family, Rab said the girl and the accused are relatives and neighbours.

Around 1:00pm on Monday, Jibon took the girl to his room and raped her, said Alep Uddin, senior assistant director of Rab-11, in a press release yesterday.

After returning home, the girl told her father about the incident.

As the girl’s condition was deteriorating, she was admitted to the upazila health complex on Tuesday.

The girl was later moved to Narayanganj General Hospital for better treatment, said the Rab official, adding that the victim’s father filed a rape case against Jibon with Sonargaon Police Station yesterday.

Our Gazipur and Narayanganj correspondents contributed to this report.