“They snatched my little bird away from me. Even innocent children are not safe in this country! Who can I turn to for justice? Allah has seen everything. He will bring my daughter’s killers to justice.”
These were the heartbreaking words of a mother who had just buried her 14-year-old daughter, Jannatul Tajmin, a seventh-grade schoolgirl whose body was found in a muddy paddy field in eastern Bangladesh after she disappeared while returning home from Cox’s Bazar.
Keya Akter broke down in tears Friday after her daughter’s funeral in Jashore, southwestern Bangladesh. Her grief reflected the anguish of a family whose desperate efforts to bring their daughter home ended with the discovery of her body in a remote field.
Tajmin, a student at Farida Bidyayatan in Cumilla, about 100 kilometers southeast of Dhaka, was found dead Thursday morning in Jagatpur village of Lalmai Upazila. A cotton towel, locally known as a gamcha, was wrapped around her neck.
Police have arrested a CNG-powered auto-rickshaw driver, identified as Suman, in connection with the suspected killing. His vehicle was found abandoned near the girl’s body.
A Father’s Unanswered Message
One of the most painful details of Tajmin’s death emerged from her father’s account of the final communication he received from his daughter.
Abdul Alim, who works for a pharmaceutical company in Cumilla, said Tajmin sent him a message and shared her live location at approximately 1:45 a.m. Thursday.
She wanted him to come and take her home.
But her father was asleep and did not see the message until the following morning.
By then, it was too late.
“When I checked the live location, I saw that my daughter’s body was being recovered,” Alim said.
Police have not established whether Tajmin was already in danger when she sent the message or exactly what happened afterward.
A Mother Who Tried to Protect Her Daughter
Tajmin’s mother said she had worried for months about her daughter’s association with a female friend whom she considered a bad influence.
“My daughter’s friend was a very bad influence. She used to persuade my daughter to go to different places,” Keya told reporters after the burial.
“When I realized what was happening, I tried everything to stop it. I even kept my daughter out of school for six months and confined her to our home to protect her.”
Despite those precautions, Keya said, the same friend persuaded Tajmin to travel to Cox’s Bazar, a popular coastal tourist destination.
The mother recalled desperately trying to persuade her daughter to return after she left home on Oct. 4.
“I called her and said, ‘Tell me where you are. I will come and bring you home myself,'” she said.
“My daughter made it all the way back to Cumilla, but she could not return home. Those monsters took her away from the road, brutally tortured her and killed my precious child. What do I have left to live for?”
The allegations against Tajmin’s friend reflect the family’s account. Police have not publicly established whether the friend was involved in any wrongdoing.
Her Final Journey
Tajmin left her family’s rented home in Cumilla’s Racecourse area on Sunday, Oct. 4, saying she was going to visit a female friend. Her family later learned she had traveled to Cox’s Bazar.
Investigators examining her movements found that she had also traveled through Brahmanbaria district before reaching the coastal city.
On Wednesday, Oct. 7, Tajmin boarded an Iconic Express bus returning to Cumilla.
Surveillance footage shows her arriving near Hotel Nurjahan in the Paduar Bazar Bishwaroad area around 11:45 p.m.
She was seen carrying a handbag and holding a mobile phone as she moved between nearby shops. She reportedly spent about 15 minutes charging her iPhone at a clothing store.
Around 12:15 a.m. Thursday, she walked toward an auto-rickshaw stand on the western side of the road and disappeared from the available CCTV footage.
Less than two hours later, she sent her father the message asking him to collect her.
Investigators have yet to establish whom she encountered afterward or how she reached the isolated field where her body was discovered.
Signs of a Struggle in the Paddy Fields
Early Thursday morning, residents of Jagatpur village noticed an abandoned auto-rickshaw near the Kachikata-Harishchar Bazar road.
The vehicle’s unusual position drew their attention. As they approached, they found rice plants flattened across several adjoining fields.
Following the disturbed vegetation, residents discovered a young girl’s body approximately 50 yards from the roadside.
Her head was pressed into the mud, and a cotton towel was wrapped around her neck. Local residents reported that she was found without clothing.
Ruhul Amin, a resident who visited the scene, said he initially noticed a handbag lying some distance from the abandoned vehicle.
He followed signs of disturbance through the fields and discovered the body. Another resident covered the girl with a cloth before police were alerted through the national emergency number, 999.
The victim was later identified as Tajmin.
Cumilla Superintendent of Police Anisuzzaman said investigators found evidence of a struggle extending across four or five adjoining paddy fields.
The disturbed vegetation suggested the girl may have tried to escape her attackers, although police have not established exactly what happened.
The towel around her neck raised suspicions of strangulation. Police sent her body to Cumilla Medical College Hospital for an autopsy.
Investigators are also examining whether she was sexually assaulted, but no forensic findings confirming such an assault have been released.
Auto-Rickshaw Driver Arrested
Police arrested Suman in Chattogram on Friday after tracing the abandoned auto-rickshaw to its owner, Abul Hashem.
Hashem told investigators that Suman had been operating the vehicle.
Police identified Suman as a man originally from Kachua in Chandpur district who had been living in Cumilla’s Lalmai area.
He was arrested at his brother’s residence in Chattogram.
According to investigators, information obtained during questioning led to the recovery of Tajmin’s iPhone Friday afternoon.
Police are examining the phone, surveillance footage and call records to reconstruct her movements and determine whether others were involved.
Investigators also questioned two of Suman’s relatives.
Superintendent of Police Anisuzzaman said Friday evening that investigators had made substantial progress in identifying a possible motive.
He said evidence suggested that several people might have been involved and that police were conducting operations to locate additional suspects.
However, authorities have not publicly established Suman’s precise role in the killing or confirmed the involvement of other individuals.
Tajmin’s father filed a murder case against unidentified suspects with Lalmai Police Station Thursday night.
A Mother’s Final Goodbye
After the autopsy, Tajmin’s body was taken to her family’s ancestral village in Chhatianatala Mallikpara, under Churamonkati Union in Jashore.
Her funeral prayer was held Friday morning, and she was buried beside her grandfather’s grave.
For her parents, the burial ended a desperate search that began when their daughter failed to return home.
Her father had received a message asking him to come and collect her. Her mother had repeatedly offered to travel wherever necessary to bring her back.
Neither got the chance.
After the funeral, Keya struggled to contain her grief as she recalled her daughter’s final journey.
“My daughter made it back to Cumilla, but she could not come home,” she cried.
“Even innocent children are not safe in this country! Who can I turn to for justice?”
For the grieving mother, the arrest of a suspect brought little comfort.
“Allah has seen everything,” she said. “He will bring my daughter’s killers to justice.”
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