Police have rescued four primary schoolgirls from Chunarughat in Habiganj after they went missing from Cumilla on 12 October, reportedly influenced by fantasies of an independent lifestyle portrayed on TikTok and other social media platforms.
The girls, aged between eight and 12, are students of classes three and five at Cumilla Police Lines Government Primary School.
Cumilla Superintendent of Police Md Anisuzzaman disclosed the details at a press conference on Wednesday (14 October).
According to police, the four girls left their homes for school on the morning of 12 October but did not attend classes. After discovering their absence, school authorities informed the district police superintendent that afternoon.
The district Detective Branch (DB) and Kotwali police immediately launched a search.
Following a general diary filed by family members, investigators examined CCTV footage from several locations and circulated the missing girls’ photographs to police stations across the country.
With assistance from Chunarughat police, the girls were eventually traced and rescued safely from Habiganj.
Police said questioning revealed that the girls had become increasingly interested in social media and less enthusiastic about their studies.
They regularly used mobile phones, uploaded videos to TikTok and communicated with people they had met online, including several unfamiliar young men whose real identities and addresses they did not know.
According to investigators, the girls were influenced by portrayals of independent living on social media and decided to leave home in the hope of earning money and supporting themselves.
Before leaving, they took an Android mobile phone and gold jewellery from home.
They later sold the phone for Tk 4,000 at Town Hall Super Market in Cumilla and travelled to Dhaka. When their plans did not work out, they headed to Chunarughat, where one of the girls had relatives.
Police said the DB had recovered both the sold mobile phone and the gold jewellery.
Legal procedures are under way to return the four girls to their families, police added.