Joynal Abedin Khan :
A mother of a five children was gang-raped for voting against the winning candidate Farhad Hossain Bahar, backed by the ruling Awami League (AL) in upazila parishad election held on Sunday.
The victim alleged that she and her husband cast vote for symbol of ‘eyeglass’ candidate Taz Uddin in the upazila vice-chairman election held on March 31. After casting vote, she and her husband were returning home by motorcycle. On the way, “Lock symbol’ candidate’s supporter Yusuf Majhi led by 10 to 12 men halted them on the way and beat up at North Bagga village in the upazila.
Yusuf Majhi, Bechu Majhi, Bazlu and Abul Bashar, known supporters of another Vice chairman candidate who of the victim’s husband and rescued her, said Char Jabber Police Station Officer in-Charge (OC) Shaed Uddin Chowdhury.
The victim was sent to Noakhali General Hospital in the small hours of Monday, said Additional Police Superintendent of Noakhali district, Dipak Jyoti Khisha.
Undergoing treatment at the hospital, the gang-rape victim told the reporter that she and her husband were threatened by Yusuf Majhi, a supporter of the “lock token’ election symbol because they voted for the ‘spectacles’ symbol instead. Both of the candidates contesting for vice-chairman post are ruling Awami League leaders.
As the couple were threatened, they took shelter in one of their relative’s residence on Sunday afternoon and were returning home around 8:30 pm, she said.
“We were stopped on our way to home by some 10 to 12 persons. Of them, Bechu Majhi, 35, Fazlu, 30 and Abul Basar, 25, took me to a banana plantation and raped while others assaulted my husband,” she said.
The victim’s husband said, the attackers left the place after a thunderstorm began and he, with the help of the locals, recovered his wife unconscious.
Resident physician of Noakhali General Hospital Syed Mohi Uddin Abdul Azim said that the victim was sent the medical through some medical examinations on Monday.
The victim’s husband filed a case against eight persons with the Charjabbar Police Station on Monday. Police have arrested Yusuf Majhi and Abul Bashar, both local residents.
Police have said they have a list of suspects, but have refused to disclose names so as to not affect the investigation. Newly-elected Vice Chairman Farhad Hossain Bahar, whose supporters are accused of raping the woman and attacking her husband, denounced the heinous crime and said his supporters were not among the attackers.
Noakhali district Awami League President and Subarnachar Upazila Parishad Chairman Khairul Anam Selim claimed the victim’s family and the people accused have a history of land dispute.
Earlier, another woman of Subarnachar upazila was gang-raped for voting for ‘sheaf of paddy’, the electoral symbol of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) by ruling Awami League men on December 30, 2018.
Just a month later, a 13-year-old girl was raped by two men centering polls violence in Subarnachar’s Purbacharbata union on January 31.
