On Pahela Baishakh—our festival of color, joy, and new beginnings—seven-year-old Jui dressed in her new clothes and showed herself off over a video call to her father, a migrant worker in Malaysia. She had makeup on her face, laughter in her voice. Her father, Zahirul Islam, smiled with pride as his daughter twirled in delight. After some playful banter, the call ended. Jui spent the day visiting, laughing, being a child.
That evening, she left home, saying she was going to the neighbor grandma’s house. She never came back.
The next morning, on Tuesday, April 15, Jui’s naked body was discovered beside a cornfield in Rampur Beel, in Chatmohar upazila of Pabna district. Her face was scorched and mangled. The child who just a day before beamed in new clothes for her father now lay discarded in a field—stripped, strangled with her own pants, and burned. The entire village is drowning in grief.
Jui was a kindergarten student at Garfa Ajeda Noorani Kinder Madrasah in Baraigram upazila, and the only daughter of Zahirul Islam, who works in Malaysia. She lived with her mother and grandparents.
When reporters visited the scene, her small body lay abandoned in a cornfield, her face disfigured by burns. Her clothing was twisted around her neck. Locals found her body in the early morning and immediately informed the police. Her family identified her—yes, it was Jui, the smiling child from just the day before.
The village erupted in collective horror and sorrow.
Neighbor Emdadul Haque described the scene. Farmers stumbled upon her body and called for help. She was completely unclothed, her little face charred. Villagers suspect she was raped, then strangled to death, and her face was deliberately burned with acid—perhaps to conceal her identity, or simply as one last act of cruelty.
Baraigram Police OC Mahbubur Rahman stated that although Jui’s home was in Baraigram, her body was found in the bordering Chatmohar area, so the case would be filed at the Chatmohar police station. Still, Baraigram police would assist in every way to bring the perpetrators to justice.
Police have already launched an investigation. Whether she was sexually assaulted will be confirmed after an autopsy.
But do we really need to wait for an autopsy to feel the weight of what has happened?
This is not just the story of one girl. This is the collapse of our collective conscience.
A child was raped, murdered, and mutilated on the Bengali New Year—and our nation barely flinched.
Shame on us.
Shame on this barbaric silence.