Al Jazeera News :
Dhaka, Bangladesh – A spate of vigilante-style murders of rape suspects in Bangladesh has raised fears of possible extra-judicial killings amid anger over rising rape cases in the South Asian country.
At least three rape suspects have been found murdered in the past two weeks with a note hung around their necks – confessing their crimes.
One of the bodies was found dumped in a village in southwestern district of Jhalakathi on January 26.
Mahmud Hasan of Boltala village went running towards the field when he was told there was a dead body lying in a paddy field. The police were already at the scene when he arrived.
A note, hung from the neck of the body, read: “I am Sajal. I am the rapist of the [victim’s name]. This is my punishment.”
“The government should launch proper investigations to probe these murders. No one should be allowed to be killed extra-judicially.”
“The body was found lying face down. There was a wound near his left eye. It seemed like a bullet wound. But strangest was the note that hung around his neck,” said Hasan, chairman of Shaulakania Union – the country’s smallest local government unit.
Another body with a similar note had been found a few days before in Savar – some 260km away from Boltala village in Shaulakania. “It felt strange and scary to see this happen in my area…but it also felt like justice,” Hasan told Al Jazeera.
Over a week before Sajal’s body was discovered, police found another body with a possible bullet wound to the head and a similar note tied around the neck that read: “I am the prime accused in a rape case” in Savar, a district near the capital, Dhaka.
The body was of Ripon, 39, a key suspect in a gang-rape and murder of a female garment worker in the beginning of this year. The third dead body was found on February 1 near a brickfield in Jhalakathi, the same district where Sajal’s body was found.
A note was placed around the neck hinting at possible role of vigilantes behind the latest killing that has raised eyebrows.
Dhaka, Bangladesh – A spate of vigilante-style murders of rape suspects in Bangladesh has raised fears of possible extra-judicial killings amid anger over rising rape cases in the South Asian country.
At least three rape suspects have been found murdered in the past two weeks with a note hung around their necks – confessing their crimes.
One of the bodies was found dumped in a village in southwestern district of Jhalakathi on January 26.
Mahmud Hasan of Boltala village went running towards the field when he was told there was a dead body lying in a paddy field. The police were already at the scene when he arrived.
A note, hung from the neck of the body, read: “I am Sajal. I am the rapist of the [victim’s name]. This is my punishment.”
“The government should launch proper investigations to probe these murders. No one should be allowed to be killed extra-judicially.”
“The body was found lying face down. There was a wound near his left eye. It seemed like a bullet wound. But strangest was the note that hung around his neck,” said Hasan, chairman of Shaulakania Union – the country’s smallest local government unit.
Another body with a similar note had been found a few days before in Savar – some 260km away from Boltala village in Shaulakania. “It felt strange and scary to see this happen in my area…but it also felt like justice,” Hasan told Al Jazeera.
Over a week before Sajal’s body was discovered, police found another body with a possible bullet wound to the head and a similar note tied around the neck that read: “I am the prime accused in a rape case” in Savar, a district near the capital, Dhaka.
The body was of Ripon, 39, a key suspect in a gang-rape and murder of a female garment worker in the beginning of this year. The third dead body was found on February 1 near a brickfield in Jhalakathi, the same district where Sajal’s body was found.
A note was placed around the neck hinting at possible role of vigilantes behind the latest killing that has raised eyebrows.
