Garo girl gang-raped on moving microbus in Dhaka streets

Five youths have hauled a Garo girl onto a microbus and taken turns raping her in Dhaka in a chilling reminder of the fatal gang-rape of an Indian student on a Delhi bus three years ago.

Thursday night’s incident at Kuril Biswa Road happened amid an outcry about no arrests being made over sexual assaults on several women on the Dhaka University campus last month.

Bhatara Police Station Inspector Md Sajjad Hossain told bdnews24.com the family of the 21-year-old girl filed a case on Friday.

Women rights activists say indifference of the authorities and the culture of impunity are encouraging the sex offenders.

Inspector Hossain said the victim was in their custody.

“She will be sent to the Dhaka Medical College and Hospital on Saturday for medical examinations,” he said.

No-one has been named in the case.

He said the victim did not tell them whether she could recognise any of the rapists.

“We’re investigating the incident with highest importance,” the police officer said.

Dark Thursday night

The victim, hailing from Mymensingh’s Phulbarhia, works as a salesgirl at a shop in the Jamuna Future Park and lives with her elder sister in Uttara.

She is in her first year studying Bachelor with honours at a Mymensingh college.

Her sister told bdnews24.com she was waiting opposite the Future Park for a bus to go to Uttara after work around 9:15pm on Thursday.

“Suddenly a microbus stopped in front of her and two youths forced her on to it. There were three others in the vehicle.

“They raped her on the moving vehicle for about an hour and a half before dumping her at Uttara’s Jashimuddin Road around 10:45pm,” she said.

According to her, the microbus slowly circled the Kuril Biswa Road and the street in front of the Future Park several times while her sister was being molested.

She said a man had visited her sister at the workplace last week with foreign women and enquired about her residence, wage and family.

“She (the victim) said the man was among the five who raped her,” the sister said. “I think she’ll recognise the man from the shop’s CCTV footage.”

Police finally take case

The sister said they were made to wait long hours and visit three police stations to lodge the case.

They went to Turag Police Station around 4am as it was near their home but were turned down as the incident took place under the jurisdiction of another police station.

An hour later, they went to Gulshan Police Station but got the same reply.

Finally, they went to Bhatara Police Station around 6am. They had to wait for three hours as the OC was not there.

The OC came at around 9:30am and registered the case three hours later after listening to them, the elder sister said.

‘Indifference, culture of impunity’

Rights activist Khushi Kabir said sexual harassments initially trigger much outcry but eventually get buried under other incidents.

She believes such incidents are on the rise because of this trend.

“This incident of rape [of the Garo girl] is a serious one,” she told bdnews24.com.

“Police need to be more active. The perpetrators should be arrested as soon as possible and be given exemplary punishment.”

Police and Dhaka University authorities drew flak for doing nothing during the sexual harassment of several women on the campus on Apr 14.

They admitted to releasing four suspected assaulters who were caught and handed over to them.

Anyone is yet to be arrested over the assault. Police recently released images of eight men from CCTV footage and announced cash rewards for information leading to their arrests.

Earlier this month, a female student was allegedly sexually assaulted at Mohammadpur Preparatory School.

The school authorities relieved the vice principal of her duties on May 16 only after the guardians demonstrated.

Bangladesh Chhatra Union formed the ‘Preetilata Brigade’, headed by its General Secretary Lucky Akter, to prevent sexual harassment of women as such incidents continued to rise.

Akter expressed shock and horror at the gang-rape of the Garo girl.

“Incidents of harassment are on the rise due to a culture of impunity.
 
“The people will take the law into their own hands for justice if the administration does not stop being aloof,” she told bdnews24.com.