OUR CORRESPONDENT, Tangail

Police recovered the body of a nine-year-old girl in Tangail’s Sakhipur upazila yesterday, two days after she was abducted.

The deceased -- Samia, daughter of Ranju Miah from Diriyapur village -- was a student in third grade at Dariyapur Majhirchala Government Primary School.

She was found dead in a drain in a bushy area, half a kilometre off her house, around 1:00pm, said Ansar Ali, chairman of Dariyapur Union Parishad.

The girl’s father filed a case with Sakhipur Police Station in this regard yesterday.

Rezaul Karim, officer-in-charge of Sakhipur Police Station, told The Daily Star that they were working to trace and arrest the culprits.

According to the case report, Samia went to Rabindranath, the headmaster of the school, about a kilometre from her home, around 7:00am on Wednesday for private tuition.

After finishing the tutoring session, she was returning home with a few of her classmates. On the way, when her friends stopped at a shop, she continued her journey home.

As Samia was not back home on time, her mother Rupa Begum called the headmaster and was informed that her daughter had left long ago. Later, when she went out to look for Samia, she found the girl’s shoes lying near their house.

After some time, she received an audio message on her phone, demanding a ransom of Tk 5 lakh for Samia’s release.

The audio message said, “Your daughter is fine and in Tangail. You will get her if you pay Tk 5 lakh by today. Do not report the matter to the police or anyone in the area. If informed, we will harm your daughter.”

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