Yet another gang rape of teenage girl
We are appalled at the news of yet another gang rape of a teenage girl in the capital, only a week after a similar horrific incident took place in Mirpur where a Class IX student was allegedly raped by three youths. In this instance, the 17-year-old employee of a shop was allegedly raped by one of her colleagues and his two cohorts in Uttara as she was returning home from work at night. The trio reportedly forced her into an under-construction building, threatened her with death and raped her before she jumped off the building two hours later in a desperate attempt to save herself.
The incidence of gang-rapes in the country seems to have reached an alarming level. On May 21, a Garo woman was gang-raped in a moving microbus in Uttara by five men; on May 27, a girl was gang-raped on a boat by four people in Gazipur's Kaliganj upazila; on June 4, a woman was gang-raped in front of her husband by armed assailants in Jagannathpur of Sunamganj who broke into their hotel room; on June 10, a policewoman was gang-raped allegedly by her former police husband and his cohorts in Khilgaon. The stories of horror go on.
In how many of the instances, we ask, were the perpetrators brought under the purview of justice, even though the victims clearly identified the rapists? How much emotional, legal and other support was provided to the victims? What concrete actions have we taken, as a state and as a society, to address the rising trend of violence against women?
We can no longer ignore this perverse epidemic that is rotting away at the core of our society. Action must be taken, and now, to make this country safe for women and girls.
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