An imam has been charged with raping an eight-year-old girl inside his mosque.

Dhaka Tribune, Bangladesh:

In a shocking incident, the imam of a mosque in Narayanganj has allegedly raped an eight-year-old girl inside the place of worship.

The appalling incident took place at the Baitul Hafez Jame Masjid situated in the Chanmari area under the Fatullah union on Tuesday morning, according to the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB).

The girl's father alleges that Imam Fazlur Rahman tied, gagged and raped her in his bedroom in the mosque.

He was arrested by the RAB along with five members of the mosque's management committee charged with trying to kidnap the girl afterwards in order to kill her.

According to initial investigations:

The victim's father had taken the child to the imam several times over the past few weeks, to have her treated as she was having nightmares. As the fake treatment was not working, Imam Fazlur on Monday evening asked the father to bring the child to him after the call to Fazr prayer on Tuesday morning.

When he did, Fazlur took them to his room on the mosque's second floor and sent the father away to buy incense sticks and a candle around 5:30 am.

Then Fazlur asked the muezzin to lock the mosque's main door on the ground floor and raped the child after tying her hands and gagging her. Afterwards, he cleaned her up and threatened to kill her if she told her parents about the incident.

The girl is now being cared for at Narayanganj General Hospital and is responding well to treatment.

Four other mosque imams were arrested between May and July this year for raping children in Dhaka, Narayanganj, Chandpur and Brahmanbaria.