Protests against rapes, sexual harassment and violence against women spread across the country on Tuesday for the second consecutive day after a video of a 37-year-old woman getting sexually assaulted and tortured by a group of youths in Noakhali went viral on social media on October 4.
Meanwhile, the police arrested two more suspects — Md Saju, 21, and Moazzem Hossain Sohag, 48, a member of Eklashpur union parishad under Begumganj upazila and a local leader of ruling Awami League early Tuesday in the cases lodged by the Noakhali victim with Begumganj police station.
Saju was arrested from Shahbagh in Dhaka and Moazzem from village Jaykrishnapur under Begumganj upazila, said additional police superintendent of Begumganj circle of Noakhali police Shahjahan Sheikh.
With the duo, a total of six suspects in the cases — one under Women & Children Repression Prevention Act and the other under anti-pornography act — were arrested.
The police produced prime accused Badal who was arrested earlier in Dhaka and Moazzem before the Noakhali Judicial Magistrate Court-3 and judge Mashfiqul Islam granted a seven-day remand for Badal and a two-day remand for Moazzem for interrogation in police custody in the cases, said sub-inspector Moshtaq Hossain of Begumganj police station who is investing the cases.
On Sunday night, Rapid Action Battalion-11 deputy assistant director Abdul Based lodged a case with Siddhirganj police station in Narayanganj against one of the suspects, Dalwar Hossain, as the RAB on Sunday night arrested him from Siddhirganj along with a firearm and two bullets, said Siddhirganj police station officer-in-charge Quamrul Faruque.
Narayanganj senior Judicial magistrate Ahmid Khatun granted a two-day remand for Dalwar in the case, said the court inspector Md Asaduzzaman.
Home minister Asaduzzaman Khan, talking to reporters at his secretariat office, termed the Noakhali incident as serious barbarity and assured punishment to all who were involved in the incident.
Meanwhile, an investigation team of National Human Rights Commission visited Noakhali and talked to the victim and his family members.
Later, NHRC director Al Mahmud Fayzul Kabir who led the team told reporters that Dalwar had raped the victim several times and grabbed video but the victim did not make any of it public as she felt insecure.
He said that NHRC would lodge a case of rape in this connection.
Chattogram range deputy inspector general of police Anwar Hossain met the victim at Begumganj police station and visited the crime scene.
The protesters in Dhaka and elsewhere in the country blamed the government as well as law enforcement agencies’ inaction, the culture of immunity and flawed criminal justice system and claimed that all this informed the investigation processes leading to poor evidence management.
They said that the biases against the powerless also resulted in the appallingly low number of convictions for the increasing number of rapes and violence against women.
They demanded immediate arrest and highest punishment of the offenders.
In Dhaka, at least five anti-rape marchers were injured during scuffles with the police at Shahbagh as police intercepted a march of the left-leaning student organisations towards Prime Minister’s Office carrying black flags protesting at countrywide rape, torture and violence against women Tuesday afternoon.
The protesting students began their demonstration in front of the national museum at Shahbagh at about 12:00am for the second consecutive day and held a rally there.
They alleged that the ruling party men were involved in most of such crimes.
Chhatra Union former president Liton Nandy, Dhaka city president Jahar Lal Roy and Samajtantrik Chhatra Front president Mukta Baroi spoke at the rally.
The protesters then began their pre-scheduled march towards the PMO at about 1:15pm, carrying black flags and as they reached the front of Hotel Intercontinental around 1:30pm, police obstructed their march.
As the marchers tried to breach the barricade, police and the marchers locked into a scuffle briefly.
‘At least five of the marchers including Bangladesh Chhatra Union leaders — Sazzad Hossain Shuvo and Asmani Asha were injured in police attack,’ said Chhatra Union Kalabagan police station unit leader Sadia Imroz Ila.
After police interception, the marchers staged and sit-in at the spot and held a rally there.
‘Police only stopped the marchers and they found themselves under attack. Two police personnel were injured after the protesters attacked them, for which we will take legal action after consulting with our senior officials,’ Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s Ramna division deputy commissioner Sazzadur Rahman told reporters on the spot.
The protesters also held a torch-procession in the evening protesting against the police attack.
Protesting students under the banner of ‘Bangladesh Against Rape’ burnt home minister Asaduzzaman Khan’s effigy at Shahbagh at around 7:30pm for his alleged failure to prevent continuous rape incidents and violation against women across the country demanding his immediate resignation.
Students of Jagannath University under the banner of ‘Santras o Nipironer Biruddhe Jagannath University’ brought out a silent procession in Old Dhaka. The protesters tied black clothes across their mouths as a symbolic gesture of condemning the rising incident of terror and sexual harassment across the country.
Samajik Protirodh Committee, a combine of 66 rights, women and development organisations, and Swechchhasebok Pather Alo formed separate human chains in front of the National Press Club and Green Voice formed a human chain near South Plaza of Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban in Dhaka to press home their demand to bring the culprits to book.
At Uttara, several hundred students of RAJUK Uttara Model College, Milestone College, Uttara High School and Nabab Habibullah High School and College formed a human chain in front of BNS Centre to raise their voice against rape and violence against women.
Sammilito Sangskritik Jote staged a protest rally on the Central Shaheed Minar premises in the capital.
The platform of cultural organisations would hold rallies protesting at rape incidents, sexual harassment and violence against women across the country on Saturday, SSJ president Ghulam Quddus announced at the protest rally.
Freedom fighter and activist Nasiruddin Yousuff, renowned recitation artiste Rezina Wali Lina, Liberation War Museum trustee Mofidul Hoque, SSJ general secretary Hasan Arif, Bangladesh Ganasangeet Samannay Parishad president Fakir Alamgir, Bangladesh Group Theatre Federation vice-president Jhuna Chowdhury and rhymester Aslam Sani, among others, attended the programme.
In Sylhet, students of Shahjalal University of Science and Technology formed a human chain defying rain in front of the university’s main gate demanding capital punishment for rapists.
New Age Correspondent in Rajshahi reported that hundreds of students of different educational institutions in Rajshahi formed a human chain at the Zero Point of the city for about an hour since 11:00am protesting against the unending incidents of rape, sexual harassment and torture against women across the country.
In Noakhali, the district ‘Jauna Hayrani Nirmulkaran Network, formed a human chain in front of the Noakhali Press Club demanding exemplary punishment of the offenders involved in Noakhali sexual harassment and torture on the Noakhali victim.
New Age correspondents reported similar protests in Chattogram, Gazipur, Kushtia, Rangpur, Cumilla, Khulna and Gopalganj districts.
Amnesty International, in a statement, urged the authorities to ensure justice after an online video emerged showing a group of men stripping and severely beating a woman in Noakhali.
