After an agonising eight-day struggle for life, the eight-year-old Magura girl succumbed to her injuries yesterday, leaving the nation in mourning.
The girl, who was choked and allegedly raped, breathed her last around 1:00pm at Combined Military Hospital (CMH) in Dhaka, the army announced.
Protests erupted in Magura as an army helicopter carrying the girl's body landed at the local stadium around 6:00pm. At one stage, the protesters set fire to the accused's house in Sadar upazila.
Aiyub Ali, officer-in-charge of Magura Sadar Police Station, said the law enforcers struggled to bring the situation under
control. The atmosphere grew sombre as the body reached Nomani Maidan for funeral prayers, he added.Thousands thronged the Maidan for the girl's namaz-e-janaza before she was laid to rest at 7:30pm.
Earlier, her mother, sobbing inconsolably at the CMH, said, "I thought my daughter would survive. If she had made it through, I would never have let her go anywhere alone again."
"I am taking my girl home," she said, adding that she wants to see the perpetrators meted out the highest punishment.