A schoolgirl was murdered allegedly after rape in Dighinala upazila of Khagrachhari on Saturday.

Kirtika Tripura Purna, 9, was a class-IV student at Noimail Government Primary School in the upazila.

Locals said Kirtika left school for her home in Noilmail area during the lunch break on Saturday. However, when her mother Onumoti Tripura, a farmer, returned home from work in the evening, Kirtika was not there. 

There was no one else in that house. Kirtika's father died in a road accident nearly five years ago. 

Worried sick, the mother searched almost every house in the village but did not find her daughter. Later around midnight, some locals spotted Kirtika's body inside a forest near the village.

On information, police recovered the body and sent it to Khagrachhari Sadar Hospital for autopsy.

Talking to The Daily Star yesterday, Assistant Sub-inspector Abdul Jabbar of Dighinala Police Station said the body bore stab wounds at different places. It seemed the girl was killed after rape, he said.

Onumoti filed a murder case with the police station, said its OC Abdus Samad. “We are trying to arrest the culprits,” he said.

Around 8:00am yesterday, angry locals blocked the Khagrachhari-Dighinala road in Noimail area, protesting the killing.  The demonstrators left around noon after local MP Kujendra Lal Tripura along with district's top police officials assured them of arresting the culprits immediately.

Meanwhile, the Dighinala unit of Bangladesh Tripura Kalyan Sangsad condemned the incident. In a statement, the platform demanded immediate arrest of those involved in the killing.

At least five girls have been raped in the hilly district in the last three months.