Four teenage girls missing from Barisal village in a day

They are Shilpi, 13, daughter of Mannan Fakir; Rozina, 12, daughter of Enajuddin Talukder; Naznin, 15, daughter of Rajab Ali Fakir and Mukta, 14, daughter of Toiab Ali Talukder.

Naznin and Mukta were students of class nine and seven respectively at Jobarpar High School.

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They left home for school and did not return. The tow others are missing from their homes.

Their guardians and villagers apprehend that the girls might have been taken away by traffickers. The officer-in-charge (OC) of Agailjhara thana visited the village after the guardians lodged a general diary on September 2.

The OC said one housewife and three teenage girls were also reported missing some month back but they returned home. It was later found that that they had gone with persons known to them without informing their families, he said.

But some of the villagers claimed that the four girls have been trafficked by one Zahirul of Chakri village in Bagda union under the same upazila and his associates Nixon Talukder and Faruk Talukder.

The three are members of an organised gang of traffickers, they claimed.

Zahirul stayed at Joilirpar village identifying himself as a Detective Branch police on the plea of investigating Union Parishad member Alauddin murder case.

He is also missing since September 1 and his identity was also proved false later, the villagers said.

When the villagers put pressure on Zahirul's family, they agreed to bring back Shilpi, one of the four girls, the villagers said.