Five-year-old Sumaiya speaks about her 'abduction'

Five-year-old Sumaiya's reunion with her parents led to an emotional scene at the DMP's media centre on Thursday.

Senior CorrespondentKamal Hossain Talukder, bdnews24.com
Published : 27 April 2017, 06:21 PM
Updated : 27 April 2017, 06:21 PM

After handing over the child to its parents, even the police personnel were unable to suppress their emotions before the child’s family.

Police rescued the child from a house at Dhaka's Jurain neighbourhood in the wee hours of Wednesday.

Five persons, including a woman Sabina Akter Brishti, were detained from the scene for their suspected involvement in the "abduction of the child" on Apr 3.

Sumaiya’s parents arrived at the Media Centre of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police at 11am on Thursday where the mother Munni Begum showered the child with hugs and kisses.

The crying child told her mother: "I have cried a lot for you. But Brishti hit me."

Brishti, who was once a neighbour of the family and is the main suspect in the incident, is currently in police custody. Her father Siraj Miya and three others are also under interrogation, said Kamrangirchar police OC Md Shahin Fakir.

At the media briefing, Sumaiya described the manner in which she was kidnapped on Apr 3.

"Brishti used to visit us. She often tried taking me to her house. That day she came to our house. Mother was inside, then she took me out on the street holding my hand."

In reply to a reporter's query, she said: "I wanted to scream but she pressed me inside a rickshaw."

"Keeping me captive, she tried several times to make me address her as 'maa'," claimed the child.

Brishti was not permitted to speak at the media session.

Sumaiya's father Zakir Hossain could not explain why Brishti had kidnapped his daughter.

"I saw Brishti only once but never spoke to her," he said.

Sumaiya's mother Munni Begum said, "Brishti came to our place in the afternoon on that day. She said she wanted to meet the landlord. She was sitting in my balcony. After a while I saw she was not there and neither was Sumaiya."

As per the general diary filed by Zakir, Sumaiya went missing from a road in front of her house in Kamrangirchar's Borogram around 5pm on Apr 3.

Zakir, a garment worker, filed the GD the same day and lodged an abduction case at Kamrangirchar Police Station on Monday.

Video footage from near Sumaiya’s house showed a woman wearing a black burqa walking away with the girl.

"The motive behind the kidnap is not clear yet. Brishti has visited India a couple of times. We are seeing if she is engaged in human trafficking," said Deputy Commissioner of Lalbagh Police Mohammad Ibrahim.