OUR CORRESPONDENT, Mymensingh

A ninth-grade schoolgirl was hacked to death by unidentified criminals in Mymensingh’s Bhaluka upazila yesterday.

Rakia Sultana Riya, 14, daughter of Abdur Rashid from the upazila’s Batajor area, was a student at Batajor BM High School.

A year ago, Riya got married to Ripon Mia, an expatriate worker living in Saudi Arabia, said Kamal Hossain, officer-in-charge of Bhaluka Police Station, quoting family.

“After a few days of their marriage, Ripon left for Saudi Arabia. After he left, his parents started abusing Riya mentally and physically, forcing her to return home. Since then, she had been staying at her father’s house,” the OC added.

Yesterday around noon, when Riya was going to school, criminals waylaid her and attacked her with sharp weapons, leaving her critically injured. She was taken to the Bhaluka Upazila Health Complex, where the doctors declared her dead. Informed, police sent her body to the Mymensingh Medical College Hospital morgue for an autopsy.

No case was lodged and no one was arrested as of writing this report in the evening. The victim’s family points fingers at her in-laws for the killing, said the OC.