Persecution of the minorities, mainly the Hindus, has been carried out in a systematic way since the August 5 changeover, with the perpetrators enjoying impunity.
Killings, looting, rape, and intimidation are the common forms of torture alongside destruction of temples and false allegations of defamation of Islam.
Last week, a Hindu temple in Dhakaโs Khilkhet was bulldozed in the face of demands by the local Islamists. The railway authorities justified the act as eviction of illegal structures, trivialising the damage to idols.
Around the same day, an elderly Hindu barber and his son were lynched in public and handed over to the police under the pretext of blasphemy. It was later found that a customer engaged in an argument with Paresh Kumar Shil while trying to pay Tk10 less for a haircut.
Latest, on June 26, a 25-year-old Hindu woman was raped in Cumilla by a locally influential politician. Locals came to her rescue and caught the culprit, but he escaped. Meanwhile, a video of the rape incident has gone viral on social media.
Factbox: Minority repression by Yunus government supporters neglected
Rights group Ain o Salish Kendra reports that from January 1 to May 31, at least 286 women and children were raped by individuals, while another 97 were gang-raped across the country. Of the victims, 16 were killed after rape.
Moreover, it is alarming that 241 of the rape victims are aged below 18, while 43 children were aged below 6.
Mob culture and Touhidi Janata
Even though the number of mob attacks has been a record high, the pro-Islamist interim government could not take any measures to prevent any incident or against the perpetrators afterwards.
Although there are highly educated rights activists at the forefront of the government, their main strength is the extremist fundamentalist group, the Touhidi Janata.
While the attackers often use the banner โTouhidi Janataโ, which refers to radical Islamists, the mobs prominently include local leaders of the governmentโs kingโs party, the National Citizen Party (NCP), BNP, Jamaat-e-Islami, Hefazat-e-Islam, Islami Andolan Bangladesh, and Bangladesh Khelafat Majlish.
As a result, we are seeing the rule of extremist fanatics instead of a progressive and liberal society on women’s issues. Several negative news stories have also come out in the international media about this.
But the criminals have become more reckless with the support of the government.
In the last few months, at least three incidents of public harassment and physical abuse of women were widely discussed. While many were demanding the speedy arrest and trial of the abusers, on the other hand, the Touhidi Janata influenced the police and the courts to release them.
As a result, we saw that they got bail after arrest, and the Touhidi Janata is welcoming them with flower garlands and Qurans.
The human rights organization Bangladesh Mahila Parishad says that brutal violence against women and girls, such as rape, gang rape, and murder, is continuing.
These incidents of violence are severely disrupting the status of women, their normal lives, and their independent movement. They are also creating obstacles in the way of the progress of students in school and college, which is why child marriage is increasing alarmingly.
Cumilla rape
Police have detained three persons for spreading the video of the woman from Cumillaโs Muradnagar. But the rapist has been hiding.
According to the case, Fazar Ali, 38, raped the woman on the night of June 26 after breaking into her house and threatening her with a sharp knife. At that time, people around her heard her screams.
Fazar Ali is the son of Shahid Mia of Purbapara village of Baherchar Pachkitta village in Muradnagar.
The woman said she came to her father’s house from her in-laws’ 15 days ago. Since then, the accused had been harassing her.
She later filed the case with the Muradnagar police station on June 27.
The victim’s aunt, Saraswati Barman, said: “A puja of our Hindu community was going on in the house next door. When I was going there from my house, I heard some noises in another house next door. I ran from there in fear and called people from the puja ceremony. People arrived and opened the door, and saw that the door was broken.โ
Local resident Sajeeb said: “There was a function in the Hindu house last night, and we were watching that function. Later, at around 10:30pm, the victim’s aunt went to tell us what was happening in her house next door. Then we all went there and found the door of the house broken. When we entered the house, we saw Fazar Ali forcibly raping the woman.โ
Locals said that Fazar Ali has established a reign of terror in the area since August 5. He has spread his influence in the area with BNP leaders and activists.
Shocking incidents of rape
In Pangsha Upazila of Rajbari, two eighth-grade schoolgirls were taken hostage and raped while they were returning home from private school. Locals Hasmat Ali and Shihab Mandal blocked their path, threatened them with blades, and raped them.
A college girl was gang-raped in a moving bus in Nabiganj Upazila of Habiganj on June 15. She left Sayedabad for Baniachong upazila of Habiganj by bus to go to her village. After falling asleep on the bus, the mother boarded a local bus named Maa Enterprise to go to Baniachong.
When she reached the Aushkandi area, the other passengers got down, and the girl was gang-raped by helper Liton Mia and driver Sabbir Mia in the moving bus.
On June 12, a schoolgirl was strangled to death in Kulaura Upazila of Moulvibazar. Neighbour Junel Mia proposed to the girl. When the girl disagreed, he tried to rape her. Angry after failing to rape her, Junel Mia strangled her to death.
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