Imam rapes ten-year-old girl

The 42-year-old man was arrested by police right away. After enduring the violent assault, the girl told her parents everything. Rape charges against the religious leader have been filed. “I want justice,” father says.

Dhaka (AsiaNews) – A ten-year-old girl was brutally raped on Saturday in Chittagong by Mohammad Moinuddin, the imam of the Chittagong Government Muslim High School. The 42-year-old man said that Satan led him to commit the deed at his shop at Yakubnagar in Firingibazar. The girl was taken to Chittagong’s Medical College Hospital for tests.

Kotwali Police Chief Abul Kalam Azad told AsiaNews that around 6 pm, the imam called the girl as she walked home from school. He then took her to a quiet place where he raped her.

The girl ran home bleeding and told everything to her parents. Her father ran to the place of the crime to apprehend the rapist, who was arrested right after police was informed of the incident.

“My daughter is just ten-years-old,” the father said. “Every time I pray, I cannot but think about what happened. I cannot believe that an imam, a man who learnt from the holy religion of Islam, a man who teaches others, is the same man who raped by daughter. I want justice.”

Deputy police inspector Naznin Sultana Juthee said that the girl’s mother has already filed rape charges against the imam.

Local human rights activists condemned the rape.