Punish them if guilty: Families of Tangail bus rape suspects

The families of the suspects arrested on charges of raping and murdering Zakia Sultana Rupa want the accused penalised if found guilty.

Rupa, a resident of Sirajganj's Tarash, was brutally raped and killed on a moving Chhowa Paribahan bus on Friday night, according to a case that has triggered condemnation and calls for punishment.

Investigations have led to the arrest of five – bus driver Habibur Rahman, 45, supervisor Safar Ali, 55, driver’s assistants ‘Shamim’, 26, ‘Akram,’ 35 and ‘Jahangir,’ 19. All of them are behind bars now pending trial.

Jahanara Begum, the mother of driver Habibur, broke into tears when approached by bdnews24.com on Thursday.

“It is hard for me to believe that he has committed such a crime. My husband died 20 years ago and I was left with two sons and a daughter. I raised them up with great difficulty,” said Jahanara.

Shamim was born in Nandipur village while the rest hailed from Mirzapur village in Mymensingh.

“We will accept whatever punishment is handed down to my son, if found guilty,” said Jahangir’s mother Jahanara Akter.

Families of Akram and Safar Ali refused to speak to the media. But they echoed Jahanara and Jahanara Akter regarding trial of the suspects.

Khairul Alam Sohag, a union council chairman in Mymensingh, said: “They have tainted our union. They must be tried.”

The owner of the bus, Amena Khatun, demanded capital punishment for the accused persons for the “heinous crime.”

On the night of Aug 25, Rupa was gang-raped and then killed on the bus while travelling to Mymensingh from Bogra.

The men broke her neck and smashed her skull before dumping her body on the road, police have said citing confessions of the arrestees.

The victim’s body was found on the Tangail-Mymensingh Highway at Modhupur's Panchish Mile area around 11pm.

Modhupur police started a case against unknown assailants after finding visible signs on her body that indicated murder.

An autopsy was conducted on her body which was buried at Tangail Central Graveyard on Saturday evening.

After the recovery of the body made it to local news, Rupa's family went to Modhupur Police Station and identified her using photos of her body.

Her brother Hafizur Rahman then started a case against the owners of Chhowa Paribahan.

Rupa was in Bogra to take the teachers' registration test held countrywide on Friday, Hafizur told bdnews24.com.

She then boarded the bus to Mymensingh with a colleague.

The colleague worked in Dhaka and got off the bus at his stop in Tangail's Elenga. Rupa was supposed to disembark at Mymensingh.

Following a Tangail court’s order, remains of Rupa were exhumed and handed to family on Thursday.