Girl missing from Mohammadpur found in Naogaon, she was not kidnapped: Police

The 11-year-old girl who reportedly went missing from the Krishi Market area of the capital's Mohammadpur on Sunday (2 February) was not kidnapped as she "willingly" went to Naogaon with a 19-year-old boy, according to police.

The girl has been spotted in Naogaon but she is not back with her family yet, Dhaka Metropolitan Police's Deputy Commissioner (DC) of Tejgaon Division Ibne Mizan told The Business Standard at 3:45pm today (4 February).

"Her family has already spoken to her. She is doing well," he added.

DC Mizan also said, "It was not an abduction case and the girl, identified as Arabi Islam Suba, willingly went with the boy, who is supposedly her boyfriend."

TBS called her father Md Emran Razib for comments but his phone was found switched off at 4pm.

Earlier on the day, Adabor Police Station Officer-in-Charge (OC) SM Zakaria, quoting the girl's family, told TBS that Suba may have willingly left with the boy.

The girl had a relationship with him, whom she was seen holding hands with in CCTV footage, OC Zakaria said.

He said Suba's family gave law enforcement agencies the boy's mobile number and efforts were underway to rescue her by tracking the number.

Around the same time, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) sources also said they had traced Suba's location, and she was under the elite forces' digital surveillance.

Sources at RAB-2 also confirmed to TBS that they had traced her location and were trying to obtain details about the boy.

They said RAB and the police got different CCTV footage of the time that Suba went missing from the Krishi Market area.

"In one footage, the girl was seen walking out of a shopping mall [Tokyo Square] in Mohammadpur along with two youths standing on both sides. She looked fine till then, and she went missing after a few moments," said the source.

In the footage, Suba was seen using her phone and behaving and walking around normally with the two youths, which implied that she was not under duress.

In a video that went viral on social media in the last 24 hours, the girl was seen saying, "I'm fine. I will be back to my father."

Earlier today at the RAB office, Suba's father Razib told TBS that they would brief the media once they got her back.

Hours after Suba went missing on Sunday (3 February), her photo and news of her going missing flooded social media. 

Razib yesterday said his daughter had arrived in Dhaka a few months back. A Grade VI student in Barishal, Suba came to Dhaka as her mother is currently undergoing cancer treatment.

She was living in her aunt's house in Mohammadpur.

According to her father, she went out with her cousin, who was of a similar age.

When they were crossing a road near Krishi Market, just in front of Prince Bazar, Suba's cousin managed to get across, but the 11-year-old could not. When her cousin looked back, he could not find her anymore.