‘Missing’ teen shows up in police station to clarify ‘she is no militant’

A young woman, who the media reported to have fled home to join jihad, has showed up at a police station, claiming simply to have got married, ‘nothing else’.

A court in Munshiganj sent the youth to safe custody on Wednesday, as she failed to produce the marriage document and refused to go back to her parents, Srinagar Police Station OC Sahidur Rahman said.

The mother of the youth, an 11th grader, said in a police compliant on July 10 that her daughter went out on June 19 and did not come back.

Amidst police investigation suggesting that those going missing were joining Islamist militants, several TV channels aired reports of the family’s suspicion that the woman had been radicalised.

After seeing the reports, the 18-year-old woman went to the Srinagar Police Station to claim she had fled home to marry her former teacher, who now works in a private firm at Gulshan in Dhaka.

Her family said in the complaint that she had called and said she had been to a ‘holy place’, arousing suspicion about her possible link to militancy.

Police started the investigation by taking a photo of the woman with her former teacher as a clue.

OC Sahidur said the so-called husband came to the station but police were unable to hand the woman to him, as they failed to produce a marriage certificate.

“Though her initial statement was inconsistent, we did not find anything to suspect that she had links to militants,” the police officer added.