Md Joynal Abedin Khan :
A 28-year old mentally disabled woman was reportedly raped in a standing bus by its driver in Bhuapur upazila of Tangail district while two other girls were raped in Modhupur upazila.
With the latest incident, a total of 24 women and girls were either ‘raped’ or ‘gang raped’ or violated inside public transports across the country in the last 20 months, says a survey report of Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Samity.
Eleven of them were gang raped by drivers and helpers of the vehicles while the rest in other 12 incidents, the organisation said on Thursday, it mentioned.
In Tangail, the mentally disabled woman was allegedly raped in a standing bus by its driver at the east end of the Bangabandhu Bridge on Friday.
Police arrested the helper of the bus Nazmul, 22, who gave a confessional statement to a Senior Judicial Magistrate in a Tangail Court under Section 164, said Mosharaf Hossain, Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Bangabandhu Bridge East Police Station.
In the statement, Nazmul told the court that the woman, aged around 28, along with others boarded the bus at Tangail Bus Terminal around 12:00am, the OC said.
The bus reached the Bangabandhu Bridge east end bus stand at Pathailkandi around 12:30am, the helper said in the statement. All passengers, except the woman, got down from the bus at different stoppages, he said.
After seeing the woman alone, driver Alam raped her in the bus while Nazmul was present there during the crime, the OC said quoting Nazmul.
Hearing the woman screaming for help, a night guard informed the matter to a police patrol team and the law enforcers rescued her from the bus and arrested the helper. The rapist driver, however, managed to escape, he said.
Earlier, Jakia Sultana Rumpa, 27, a college girl was murdered after gang-raped by the driver and helpers on a running bus in Madhupur upazila on August 29, 2017. she completed her master’s from Bogra Azizul Haque College and was studying law at Dhaka Ideal Law College. She was working at Unilever Bangladesh Limited in its Sherpur branch.
Another 23-year old girl was raped by a driver and his two helpers inside the ‘Binimoy Paribahan’ bus, which was heading for Dhaka from Modhupur’s Dhanbarhi on April 2, 2016.
In Manikganj, a garment worker was gang-raped inside a running bus on the Dhaka-Aricha highway at Dhamrai in Manikganj on April 10.
Earlier, a housewife was gang raped inside a running microbus on Dhaka-Aricha highway on March 21.
In Lakshmipur, two sisters were alsogang-raped overnight after being dragged into an abandoned bus by five men in Kamalnagar upazila of the district on March 29.
On 21 January, 2017, a Dhaka University student filed a sexual harassment case with Darusslam Police Station accusing a bus driver and a helper of a bus on the Gabtali-Nabinagar route. Later, police arrested the duo, according to the report.
A schoolgirl was ‘gang raped’ by an easybike driver and two others as she failed to pay the ride fare at Alamdanga in Chuadanga district on 13 November, 2017.
On 9 April, 2017, a woman was ‘raped’ in front of her husband in a running bus on the Dhaka-Aricha highway.
On 31 July, 2017, a girl was ‘gang raped’ in a bus of ‘Padma Paribahan’ at Roumari in Kurigram district on her way to Dhaka. On the way to Narayanganj from Gazipur, driver Mahedi Hassan and his aide Sohan allegedly gang raped a teenage girl on the running truck on August 1, 2017. Later, police arrested the driver.
On 8 August, 2017, a man named Imran Hossain tried to violate a girl in a car in Dhaka’s Banani area after kidnapping her. Police arrested the man and seized the car.
On 11 August, 2017, a madrasa student was repeatedly ‘gang raped’ by a human hauler driver and helper in Mymensing district. Later, police arrested them after the victim’s uncle filed a case.
Earlier, five youths had dragged a 21-year old Garo girl onto a microbus raped her in Dhaka’s Kuril Biswa Road.
According to statistic, a female readymade garment worker was allegedly gang-raped by the driver and helper on a running bus on the Dhaka-Aricha highway on Janury 24 in 2013 while a 23-year-old paramedical student was raped in a running bus in Indian capital of New Delhi in December 17, 2012, who later died due to injuries.
