Police arrest two for strangling Demra children after attempted rape

Police have arrested two suspects over the murder of two children in Dhaka’s Demra.

Golam Mostofa, 31, and his cousin Azizul Baowani, 32, allegedly strangled the two girls to death after attempting rape, police said on Wednesday.

The ceramics workers were caught during raids at Jatrabari’s Bhanga Press and Demra’s Mollabridge areas on Tuesday night.

The dead bodies of Faria Akhter Dola, 5, and Nusrat Jahan, 4, were found under a bed in Mostofa’s home on Monday night, hours after they went missing from near their home at Konapara in Demra. 

Police had detained Mostafa’s wife Akhi and her brother after failing to find Mostafa on Monday night.

The murdered children were nursery school-goers who lived next to each other at Konapara’s Shahjalal Road and were playing outside their homes before being abducted.

“Because the children were so young, we thought the suspects took them for ransom. But during questioning the men told us their intention was to rape Nusrat and Dola,” said Deputy Police Commissioner (Wari) Mohammed Farid Uddin Ahmed during a briefing.

Mostafa’s wife Akhi is a garment worker and was away working at the factory during the incident. “Mostafa and Azizul lured the children to their home saying they will buy them lipsticks”.

“The suspects had smoked Yaba tablets and played songs loudly while trying to force themselves on the children. They have admitted to strangling the children to death with a gamcha after failing to rape them.”   

Azizul left the scene after the two hid the bodies under a bed, while Mostafa remained at home.

After returning home from work on Monday evening, Akhi noticed “a change in her husband’s behaviour”, she told police. Mostafa fled their home while Akhi was visiting a neighbour.      

Police then recovered the bodies of the murdered children with help from locals. They found the 'gamcha', a type of washcloth, used to strangle the children and collected several more evidence from the scene of the crime.

Ceramics worker Mostafa was named as a suspect in an old robbery cased filed with Jatrabari police, said Deputy Police Commissioner Farid. He hails from Madaripur while his cousin Azizul is originally from Faridpur.

A case has been file with Demra police over the murders.