The rape and murder of seven-year-old Sadia Afrin Sayma in Dhaka’s Wari locality, which has sent shockwaves across the capital, shows brutality at its peak. Harun Ur Rashid, the prime accused in the murder of Sadia Afrin Sayma, who was arrested from Cumilla yesterday, took her to the roof of the apartment building where she lived, promising her that he would show her the rooftop. There, in a newly constructed ninth floor apartment, he raped Sayma.

After the rape, while Sayma became unconscious, he thought the seven-year-old girl had died. He tied a rope around her neck and put her under a sink in the kitchen. Then he fled the spot. Detectives in a drive in Cumilla arrested the prime suspect, Harun-Or-Rashid, a painter by profession, from Darbardanga area in Titas upazila in Cumilla district.

Tipped off, a team of DB east division conducted a drive in the area and arrested Harun around 11:30 am, said additional commissioner of police of the Detective Branch (DB), Abdul Baten, at a press conference at the Media and Public Relations Centre of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP).

"This type of incident speaks of ill intentions and tastes of an individual. It is also a crime against humanity. While committing this crime, especially like rape, they believe they can't get away with it, and so they commit murder. Harun did the same."

Harun used to live in the rented flat of his cousin Parvez in the same building, Abdul Baten said.  During primary interrogation, the arrestee confessed that he strangulated the girl to death after raping her.

Forensic examinations, on Saturday, confirmed that the Wari victim was raped before she was killed. The body of the seven-year-old was found on Friday in an empty flat of the building in which her family lived.

Baten said the incident occurred between 6pm and 6.30pm on Friday. On that day, Sayma told her mother that she would go to the eighth floor of the building, where another flat-owner, Parvez, lived. Sayma wanted to play with his daughter, but Parvez’s wife told Sayma that her daughter was sleeping. Sayma decided to return to her flat.

“While Sayma was in the lift, she met Harun. Harun persuaded Sayma that he would show her the rooftop of the building, which is under construction. There Harun tried to rape her but Sayma shouted, when Harun held Sayma tightly and raped her. After raping her, when Sayma became unconscious, he thought the seven-year-old girl had died. He then tied a rope around her neck and put her under a sink in the kitchen. He then fled the scene,” said the police official.

Baten said Harun had been living on that floor for the last couple of months. He used to work with Parvez in the latter’s paint shop.

Sayma’s father Abdus Salam told media-persons that he wanted capital punishment for the rapist and murderer of his daughter. “I couldn’t save my daughter, please save yours,” said Salam to all the parents. “Police have identified and arrested the prime accused within a short time. I want justice and he should be punished within three to six months,” said Abdus Salam.

Earlier on Friday, Sayma, a student of Silverdale School, was found dead on the eighth floor of the building where construction activities were going on. When she went missing for a long time, her parents, who are residents of the same building, conducted a search inside the unfinished flat around 7:45pm and found the body. The victim’s father has filed a case in this connection.