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abducted and taken to the secluded hilltop by miscreants who intended to murder her.

Her paternal uncle said it would have been impossible for a child to travel such a distance alone and insisted she had been kidnapped. He added that the family had no known enemies.

“We don’t know what will happen to my niece. How can anyone be so cruel as to try to slaughter a child? We want justice and the immediate arrest and punishment of those responsible.”

The victim underwent an emergency operation on Sunday evening. She was taken to the operating theatre again last morning for a second surgery to stabilise her respiratory tract, while anxious family members waited outside.

Dr Selim Kashem Chowdhury, an ENT consultant at CMCH, said the girl’s trachea was severely injured in the attack but noted that she was rescued within half an hour.

Doctors performed a standard tracheostomy and inserted a tube to assist her breathing. “As long as the tube remains in place, she will be unable to speak. We hope to remove it in two to three weeks, depending on her recovery.”

Law enforcement agencies, including police and the Rab, have launched investigations into the incident.

Sitakunda Police Station Officer-in-Charge Mahi Noor-e-Islam said the victim’s mother filed a case against unidentified individuals on Sunday. “We are investigating the matter with the highest priority, though no arrests had been made as of this [yesterday] afternoon.”

Sources within Rab-7 said they were conducting a shadow investigation to determine the motive behind the attack.

Meanwhile, Shakila Yasmin Suchona, additional superintendent of police (Sitakunda circle), Chattogram, said they were also trying to unearth the reason behind the incident.

“We have collected the footages of all CCTV cameras between the spot of the incident and the victim’s house. We have also requested the CMCH authorities to collect the swab specimen of the victim so that it can be confirmed whether the girl was raped.”

Contacted, Dr Reshma Sharmin, of the One Stop Crisis Centre at CMCH, said sample of the victim was collected but was yet to be tested. “We could not know the history from the patient as her throat was slit and she cannot yet speak.”