Three minor Hindu schoolgirls have been abducted over the last 3 months in Bangladesh’s Satkhira district. They are all yet to be traced. 9th grader Trishna Mondal was abducted 6 days ago, 7th grader Puja Rani Sardar was abducted 47 days ago, and 10th grader Sumitra Rani Majumdar was abducted 80 days ago. Police has failed to rescue and recover any of these girls. 

Puja and Trishna belonged to Assasuni sub-district and Sumitra to Tala sub-district under Satkhira district of southwestern Bangladesh, Bengali language news portal of Bangladesh, Uttaradhikar 71 News Online has reported.

According to the report, Surajit Mondal’s daughter Trishna Rani Mondal was being harassed and stalked by Naeem Sardar, son of Khokon Sardar of the same village. Surajit Mondal complained to Naeem’s father and relatives about this but they did nothing to stop the Islamist youth. This is a common pattern – often, Muslim youngsters are deeply indoctrinated by their family and community elders to prey on non-Muslim girls as they are told such actions will be rewarded by Allah. 

Last Tuesday, on May 2, around 6:00 pm, while Trishna was standing in front of her house, Naeem along with some of his friends came on a motorcycle and picked her up forcefully. Hearing her screams, neighbors tried to catch them but failed. In this incident, Surajit Mondal filed a case with Assasuni police station on May 4. Police arrested one of Naeem’s friends but Naeem is still on the run & Trishna is yet to be rescued.

Sub-Inspector (SI) of Assasuni police station, Mahitur Rahman told Uttaradhikar 71 News Online that ‘maximum efforts’ were being made to nab the accused.

In a separate incident, Class 7 student Pooja Rani Sardar was abducted on March 21 around 7 am by Hannan Sheikh’s son Nazmul Sheikh and his accomplices in the same sub-district. The police has not managed to rescue her even 47 days after the abduction. The investigating officer of the case, SI Mohsin Ali said that he received the investigation order of the case only five days ago. “All efforts are being made to rescue the victim and arrest the accused”, he claimed said.

In another incident, Class 10 student Sumitra Majumdar of Tala sub-district was kidnapped by Abdul Karim Gazi’s son Rakibul Islam on February 18 around 10 am. In this incident, the victim’s father Swapan Majumdar filed a case at the police station on February 21. 

Even after 80 days of abduction, the victim has not been rescued, and the accused Rakibul Islam and Abdul Karim Ghazi have not been arrested. Maya Rani Majumdar, the mother of kidnapped Sumitra Rani Majumdar, said that kidnappers Rakibul Islam and his father Abdul Karim Gazi came to their house and wandered around brazenly, but the police did not arrest them.

The investigating officer of the case, SI Ashok Kumar Paul of Tala police station said that ‘efforts were being made’ to rescue the victim. Uttaradhikar 71 news online could not contact Officer-In-Charge (OC) of Tala police station in this regard, the report added.