The quiet village of Himail in Joypurhat’s Kalai upazila was shaken by a grim discovery on Friday night as the lifeless body of a four-year-old girl, found stuffed inside a septic tank, seven days after she was reported missing.

Little Radia Akhter Ruhi had been visiting her paternal grandmother’s house when she vanished without a trace on May 24.

Her disappearance plunged the family into uncertainty and fear. A general diary was filed at Kalai Police Station by her mother, Arjen Akhter, sparking a frantic search.

Days passed, but there was no sign of Ruhi — until Friday night, when police, acting on leads from their investigation, pried open the lid of the toilet’s septic tank at the same house. Inside, they found her tiny body, wrapped in a sack.

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“She was found in her paternal grandmother’s house, the very place she had come to visit,” said officer-in-charge Zahid Hossain of Kalai Police Station, his voice heavy with emotion. “We recovered the body and made four arrests in connection with the case.”

Among those arrested are Ruhi’s father, Abdur Rahman; her stepmother, Sonia Akhter; her uncle, Roni Mia; and Sonia’s father, Zia Kashai. The motive behind the alleged crime remains under investigation.

Ruhi was the child of Abdur Rahman’s first marriage. Following his separation from Arjen Akhter, the young girl had been living with her mother at her maternal grandmother’s home, not far from where her life was so brutally cut short.

Neighbours in the village, now gripped by shock and sorrow, struggle to make sense of the tragedy. “She was just a child. How could anyone do this to her?” one resident said.