Outrageous gang-rape again

Amid countrywide outrage and concern over sexual abuse against women, a girl has been gang-raped on a boat by four people in Gazipur’s Kaliganj upazila.

Though two people have been arrested, allegations have come that police kept her waiting at a police station instead of taking her to immediate medical attention.

The 18-year-old girl is said to be a worker of Pran-RFL Group in Narsingdi. She was violated by four youths who also works for the same company, our Gazipur correspondent reports quoting locals and police.

On Wednesday, the girl was returning to her home to Nargana in the upazila around 8:00pm when she boarded a boat, owned by the company, on the Sitalakhya river, said Arif Hossen, an assistant sub-inspector of Kaliganj police.

After all her co-workers got down at Nargana area, the four youths – Al Amin, 25, Fahim, Faruk and Sharif – tied her on the boat and gang-raped her, the policeman said quoting the victim.

Locals caught Faruk and Sharif and handed them over to police, ASI Arif said. “This is how we came to know about the incident. Two others have managed to flee.”

Mostafizur Rahman, officer-in-charge (OC), of Kaliganj Police Station, today said that a case has been filed in this connection. “The girl is in police custody now.”

Locals have alleged that the girl was kept waiting in the police station from Thursday morning till evening. Now, since Friday is a holiday, the victim has to wait for Saturday to get medical treatment.

Only a few days ago, the country was outraged by the gang-rape of a woman, belonging to the Garo ethnic community, in a microbus in capital Dhaka.

Prior to this, sexual abuse on women during Pahela Baishakh at Dhaka University and Jahangirnagar University drew widespread outrage and triggered protests everywhere.