Patuakhali: In another incident of extreme brutality, a seventh grader was killed reportedly after rape by unknown miscreants in her house at Serajpur village in Kalapara upazila on Tuesday night.

The victim was identified Eva, 11, a student of Mohipur High School and daughter of carpenter Ismail Hossain of the village.

Ismail filed a case against three unnamed people with Mohipur Police Station over the tragic incident.

Superintendent of Police of the district Moinul Islam said prima facie evidence indicate that the girl was strangulated to death after rape. 

Mentioning that the autopsy was conducted on the victim’s body, he said they will be sure whether she was raped once the report reaches their hands.

Citing the case statement, officer-in-charge of Mohipur Police Station Mizanur Rahman said a gang of miscreants stormed the victim’s house around 7pm when her stepmother along with her younger daughter was asleep in a room.

The culprits, he said, took her to the terrace and raped her before killing.

Victim’s uncle M Yusuf local journalists he entered the house hearing screams only to find Eva lying naked on the ground and her mother and younger sister tied. “She (Eva) was bleeding profusely,” he said, adding that there were marks of injury in her neck.

After informing police of the matter over phone, Eva was taken to Mohipur 20-bed Hospital where doctors declared her dead, Yusuf said.

Dr M Arifur Rahman, the duty doctor at the hospital, said there were injury marks on her body. 

He, however, could not confirm whether she was raped, saying it will not be decent to it without any medical test.

The SP also said they were interrogating the victim’s stepmother over the incident.

Ismail Hossain went for the second marriage after the death of his first wife a few years back.

According to a report of Bangladesh Mahila Parishad (BMP), at least 592 rape incidents took place across the country in the last six months till June 30 this year.

Of them, 98 women and children fell victim to gang-rape, 29 were killed after rape and 61 managed to escape rape attempts during the period from January 1 to June 30.

Besides, 65 women and children were sexually harassed during the period.