STAFF CORRESPONDENT

An eight-year-old girl was found beheaded in her neighbour’s home in Dhaka’s Pallabi yesterday.

The victim, Ramisa Akter, was a second-grade student at Popular Model High School. Her body was found in the sublet room of Sohel Rana, 32, a rickshaw mechanic, who was detained later in the evening.

The horrific murder left the victim’s family, relatives, and neighbours devastated and enraged.

Mostak Sarker, deputy commissioner of Mirpur Division Police, said Sohel went into hiding but was detained from Narayanganj’s Fatullah around 7:00pm.

Sohel, a sublet tenant, was living in a room of a flat with his wife Swapna, while two other families occupied the remaining rooms. The other tenants were outside when the incident occurred.

Police and family members suspect that the detainee lured the child into his room, raped her, and then killed her when she screamed.

The incident took place in a second-floor flat opposite the victim’s in Block B of Section 11 in Pallabi.

When the child’s mother Parveen Begum, who was in her bedroom while her children were having breakfast and were about to get ready for school, saw that Ramisa was not in the flat around 10:30am, she began looking for her. The father was already out for work by then.

SEE PAGE 2 COL 4