A young woman, aged 18, fell victim to gang-rape in Chattogram while searching for accommodation as she sought employment.

The incident occurred around 11 pm on Thursday (January 18) in the Shikalbaha area under Karnaphuli Police Station, Chattogram. The victim's family filed a rape case at the police station on the night of January 19.

The accused in the case have been identified as Md. Akash, Omar Faruq, Md. Soleman, Md. Raju, Md. Nazmun, Md. Jobaid, and Md. Asif. Md. Akash (19), the main suspect, has been arrested while the others remain at large. All the accused are from the Shikalbaha union area.

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Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Karnaphuli Police Station, Zahir Hossain, confirmed the details. He informed that the victim's grandmother filed the case against seven individuals. The police have arrested the main suspect, and efforts are ongoing to apprehend the remaining accused.

The victim, originally from Pekua upazila in Cox's Bazar, had traveled to Karnaphuli from Pekua on Thursday in search of a job. According to the case statement, she met a Mahindra driver named Md. Shawkat in the Moijjartek area of Karnaphuli that afternoon. After informing him of her intention to work in a local garment factory, she asked Shawkat to help find a rented house in Karnaphuli. Shawkat, along with two women he knew, accompanied the young woman to Shikalbaha to look for accommodation.

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Around 10:30 pm, when they reached the Billapara area in Shikalbaha, the accused assaulted them and forcibly took the victim into an auto-rickshaw. They then took her behind a local school where she was gang-raped. Upon realizing the situation, locals informed the police, who rescued the victim from the crime scene. Following this, a police operation led to the arrest of the main suspect, Akash.

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