Kidnapped child rescued after 16 hours

The eight-month-old daughter of a home ministry employee, who was abducted during a robbery in their home in the capital’s Lalbagh, was rescued by Rab 16 hours after being kidnapped on Friday morning.
The robbers abducted her to demand ransom from the family, said Rab officials, adding that they also looted Tk 1.5 lakh cash and gold ornaments.
At a press briefing at the Rab Media Centre in the capital’s Karwan Bazar yesterday, they said they are keeping the child’s father under surveillance, adding that they would look into all possible motives behind the kidnapping.
The law enforcers said they arrested 27-year-old Fatema Akter Shapla, who had moved into the house as a “paying guest” just a day earlier.
A Rab-10 team raided a house in the Nabinnagar Housing area of the capital’s Mohammadpur around 1:30am on Friday and arrested Shapla. Arisa Jannat Zaifa, daughter of home ministry employee Farzana Akhter, 33, was rescued from there and handed over to her family.
Farzana’s relatives said four people, including a woman, kidnapped the child and took away cash and some gold ornaments after tying Farzana up inside her home. She and her daughter were home alone at the time.
At the briefing, Rab spokesperson Lt Col Munim Ferdous said, “About a week ago, Shapla met Farzana during her commute to the office and introduced herself as Raisa from Naogaon. She claimed to be unmarried and a second-semester BBA student at a university and said she also worked as an office assistant in the Secretariat’s transport pool.
“Shapla further told Farzana that she needed a room to sublet in Dhaka and, if Farzana rented her a room, she could take care of her child while studying at home.”
He said Farzana agreed as she needed help with her child and rented a room to Shapla, who paid Tk 2,000 in advance on Thursday and moved in.
The next morning, Shapla told Farzana that her relatives from the village would be bringing rice to the house. Around 8:30am, she brought three men into the house and introduced them as her cousins.
Lt Col Munim said, “Once they got inside, the four suddenly threatened Farzana with sharp weapons, tied her hands and feet with scarves, and looted gold, cash and other valuables. On their way out, they took Zaifa.
“Shapla then went to a house in Mohammadpur’s Nabinnagar Housing with Zaifa, while her accomplices went into hiding. They had planned to demand a ransom of Tk 10 lakh, but when the news of the abduction spread quickly through media and social media platforms, they refrained from making the demand.
“During questioning, Shapla revealed that the other three are Suman, Hasan and Raihan. They haven’t been arrested yet.”
Lt Col Munim said the four had been following Farzana’s movements for two weeks before committing the crime.
“They had planned to conduct the robbery on Thursday but were unsuccessful because a relative of Farzana was at the house.”
About whether any family member might be involved, he said the victim’s husband is under surveillance.
“The couple has been living separately for the past four months. However, the husband would meet their daughter frequently.”
Jashim Uddin, deputy commissioner (Lalbagh Division) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, told The Daily Star that kidnapping a child after a robbery is a new dimension of crime, and they will investigate whether there are any other motives.
According to Rab, Shapla is a homemaker, originally from Bogura. After completing her HSC in Dhaka in 2014, she enrolled in college for a degree in marketing but did not complete the programme.
She married her husband Mohammad Selim Hossain in 2023 and moved into his and his family’s house in the Nabinnagar Housing area around three-four months ago.