International observers considered the 2018 parliamentary elections neither free nor fair, the report says
Reported rape incidents doubled to 1,413 in 2019: ASK
The number of reported rape incidents has nearly doubled to 1,413 in 2019, according to the Ain O Salish Kendro or ASK.
Published : 31 Dec 2019, 01:20 PM
Updated : 31 Dec 2019, 01:20 PM
A total of 388 people have been subjected to “extrajudicial killings”, the legal rights group said in an annual report on human rights condition in Bangladesh.
Allegations of enforced disappearances decreased, but overall human rights condition was “alarming”, ASK said in the report published at a news conference in Dhaka on Tuesday.
The incidents of violence against women and children included rape, gang rape, sexual abuse and casualties, the report said.
It also mentioned the killings of innocent people by angry mobs amid child abduction rumours in mid-2019.
Nina Goswami, a senior deputy director at ASK, said the organisation found that 76 women were killed after rape while 10 other rape victims took their own lives, among the 1,413 incidents.
The total number of rape incidents reported last year was 732 and it was 818 in 2017.
Incidents of sexual harassment of women more than doubled to 258 in 2019 from 118 in 2018, according to ASK.
As many as 18 of the female victims killed themselves while the sex abusers killed 17 people, including four women, who protested against these incidents. The sex abusers also attacked 44 men for protesting against these incidents, the report said.
In 2019, violence against children also rose. ASK collected reports of deaths of 487 children after physical abuse, rape, abduction and missing incidents. The number was 419 last year.
ASK criticised Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal for defending the law enforcers over the deaths in so-called crossfire incidents. The minister told an anti-drugs campaign on Mar 9 last year that the law enforcers fire their weapons only in self-defence, a comment ASK said apparently “inspired extrajudicial killings”.
In the anti-drug drives in 2019, a total of 187 people lost their lives.
As many as 14 died in custody after arrest while six died from torture and 12 others were shot dead before arrest, according to the ASK report.
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