Barishal rights activists demand PM’s intervention

Rights activists yesterday staged a demonstration in Barishal city, demanding speedy trial and capital punishment for rapists and killers of Shahinoor Akter Tania.

They formed a human chain in front of the city’s Ashwini Kumar Hall and brought out a procession, seeking prime minister’s intervention in the matter.

They also submitted a memorandum to the PM through the deputy commissioner and divisional commissioner.

Sammilita Nari o Shishu Nirjatan Protirodh Andolon, Barishal organised the programmes where more than 50 human and women’s rights activists and representatives from various organisations -- including Swadhinata Nurses Parishad and Integrated Social Development Association -- participated.

Rabeya Khatun, president of Bangladesh Mahila Parishad, Barishal branch, presided over the event.

Puspa Rani Chakraborty, secretary of the district unit of Mahila Parishad; Malina Mandal, divisional president; and Selina Aktar, district president of Swadhinata Nurses Parishad, were, among others, present on the occasion.

The speakers said the number of incidents of stalking, harassment and torture of women are increasing alarmingly in the country in recent days, due to impunity and delay in legal process.

Offenders often go free through the loopholes of law, said the rights activists.

The participants demanded security of women in all spheres of the society.

On May 6, Tania, a nurse at Ibn Sina Hospital’s Kalyanpur branch in Dhaka, died in mysterious circumstances in a passenger bus on her way home in Kishoreganj’s Katiadi upazila.

Her autopsy found evidence that she was gang-raped and murdered, said Kishoreganj’s civil surgeon.