Lalmohammad Kibria:
A 13-year-old girl, a fifth-grade student, was allegedly gang-raped in Nakla upazila of Sherpur district. On Saturday night, February 22, the girl's mother filed a case with the police station against a young man named Ashiq Mia (20) and 3/4 unidentified people.
Angry students blockaded the police station demanding justice after the arrest of Ashiq Mia (20), the main accused in the gang rape case of a teenage girl in Pathakata village of the upazila, on Sunday afternoon, February 23.
At around 1:30 pm on Sunday, leaders of the anti-discrimination student movement led by Nakla Upazila representatives SM Masum and Rayyan Al Mahadi, local residents and school and college students took to the streets demanding that the arrested accused Ashiq be handed over to them for trial and blockaded the Nakla police station and began demonstrating.
The accused, Ashik, is the son of Abu Said of Shalua village in Talki union of the upazila. The girl was studying in the fifth grade at a local government primary school. Her father is a daily wage laborer. The rape incident took place in Pathakata village of Pathakata union of the upazila last Friday evening.
According to police and the girl's family, the girl left her house on Friday evening, saying she was going to visit a nearby house. As she was late returning home, her family members went out to look for her. Later, the girl was found unconscious eating corn near the house. At that time, the accused in the case, the scoundrel Ashiq, along with 3/4 others, fled.
Later, the girl was rescued and shifted to Nakla Upazila Health Complex in a life-threatening condition and later to Mymensingh Medical College Hospital for advanced treatment that night. The girl is currently undergoing treatment at Mymensingh Medical College Hospital.
The family alleged that while the girl was on her way to visit a neighboring house in the evening, some mischievous young men picked her up and gang-raped her in a nearby cornfield.
In this regard, Abul Kashem, Police Inspector (Investigation) of Nakla Police Station, said that the girl's mother has filed a case with Nakla Police Station in the incident. The police are working to provide necessary legal assistance to the girl and her family.
Police station surrounded over gang rape of a teenager. After the blockade of the Nakla-Dhaka highway, the entire police force, including the Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Nakla Police Station, Habibur Rahman, was trapped inside the police station.
After an hour and a half, the protesters left the police station and took up positions on the Dhaka-Sherpur regional highway in front of the police station gate and continued their protest. All types of vehicles plying on the Dhaka-Sherpur regional highway in front of Nakla police station were stopped.
Slogans were raised, "It's been a while, the blood is on fire," "The hideout of rapists will not remain in Bangladesh," "We will remove the skin of rapists," "Why was my sister raped? The administration must answer," and "We want the rapist to be hanged, it must be done."
Upon receiving the information, Sherpur Additional Superintendent of Police (Sadar Circle) Md. Abdul Karim arrived at Nakla Police Station around 4:30 pm. Later, the Additional Superintendent of Police, Upazila BNP convener Khorshedur Rahman, along with leaders of BNP, Jubo Dal and Chhatra Dal, and representatives of Nakla Upazila Anti-Discrimination Student Movement SM Masum, Rayyan Al Mahdi Antar and Imam Hasan Sabbir, sat in a closed-door meeting in the OC's room.
In the meeting that lasted for about 40 minutes, Additional Superintendent of Police Abdul Karim assured the police that the other accused in the rape case would be arrested soon and given exemplary punishment, after which the leaders left the police station.
Later, around 5:30 p.m., when the protesters lifted the blockade from the road, traffic flow returned to normal.
Additional Superintendent of Police Abdur Karim said, "No one has the right to take the law into their own hands. A case has been registered at the police station regarding the rape. We have arrested one of the accused."
Police operations are underway to arrest the remaining accused. We hope that we will be able to arrest them soon and provide exemplary punishment to the criminals.
Lal Md. Shahjahan Kibria
Sherpur
