Rights activist criticises Hasina for being silent about college girl murder

A rights activist, demanding justice for college student Sohagi Jahan Tonu, has criticised Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for being ‘silent’ about her murder following possible rape.

The Awami League chief had taken to the streets after Yasmin Akhter, a teenager from Dinajpur, was raped by policemen in 1995, said Prof Dilara Chowdhury of Dhaka’s North South University.

She was addressing a seminar under the banner of ‘Women for Good Governance’ at the National Press Club on Wednesday. 

“Now that you (Hasina) have more power, why don’t you make sure Tonu gets justice? Why are you quiet? Why is there so much drama in every step of the investigation?”

The physicians who performed the first autopsy for the Victoria Government College student could not prove to be professionals, according to Prof Chowdhury.

“First they ruled out any signs of injury, then after 10 days they said there was no evidence of rape. What kind of doctors are you if you can’t even say how Tonu died?”

“Leave your jobs if you can’t find her cause of death.”

Protests are continuing in Dhaka and other places with fears of police cover-up in the investigation into the young theatre activist’s murder.

Police, after finding her dead body within several yards of her house at Comilla Cantonment on Mar 20, said she had possibly been raped.

The report of her first autopsy released on Tuesday said her body did not bear signs of rape while it was inconclusive about the cause of death.

But another report was due from a second autopsy performed after the court ordered her body to be exhumed.