Brutes on the loose

A woman was killed in a moving bus after her father was pushed off the vehicle on Dhaka-Tangail highway in Savar on the outskirts of the capital on Friday night.

The incident may remind one of the rape and murder of law student Rupa Khatun inside a running bus in Tangail over a year ago.

Police and family sources said Jarina Khatun, 45, along with her father Ali Akbar, 75, of Khaj Kawali village in Sirajganj's Chauhali upazila, went to Ashulia's Unique area a few days ago to visit her daughter Rozina, who recently became a mother. 

Following the visit, Ali and Jarina got into a Tangail-bound bus at the local bus stop around 5:00pm on Friday. Rozina's husband Nurul Islam saw them off.   

Nurul said he called Ali over his phone around 9:00pm and came to know that the father and daughter were beaten inside the bus and Ali was dragged out of the vehicle in Moragang area of Ashulia.

Talking to The Daily Star, Ali said there were 10 to 12 passengers when he and Jarina boarded the bus. After some of the passengers got down, the others blindfolded the two and started assaulting them. At one point, the attackers pushed Ali off the bus, leaving him injured.

On being informed by him, a police patrol team started looking for the vehicle, said Javed Masud, officer in-charge (investigation) of Ashulia Police Station.

Hours later, the law enforcers found Jarina's body near Moragang area beside the highway.

The vehicle fled.

The body was sent to Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College for an autopsy. Nurul yesterday filed a case with the police station.

Following primary investigation, police suspect that the victim was strangled to death, the OC said.

“We are waiting for the autopsy report and trying to identify the culprits,” he said. Asked, the police official said Ali could not name the bus in question.

On August 25 last year, Rupa, 27, was raped and killed on a bus heading for Mymensingh by three assistants of the driver. Her body was thrown out of the vehicle in an empty forest area beside Tangail-Mymensingh road.

This September, a mentally challenged was raped inside another bus in Bhuapur upazila of Tangail.