7 held for lashing schoolgirl

Police on Friday night arrested seven people for giving 101 lashes to a schoolgirl on Wednesday and attacking journalists who went to collect news about the matter at Naogaon village in Daragram union parishad of Saturia upazila under the district the next day.
The arrestees -- Abdur Razzak, 53, member of Daragram union parishad, Bachchu Matbar, 60, Abdul Kader, 45, Abu Sayeed, 46, Abdul Hakim, 40, and Shafiqul Islam, 31, of Naogaon village were sent to jail after they were produced before the Court of Senior Judicial Magistrate Farjana Ahmed at Manikganj yesterday afternoon.
Officer in charge of Saturia police station Humayun Kabir filed a case against 15 people of Naogaon village including the arrestees for lashing the schoolgirl 101 times, realising Tk 40,000 from her family members as 'fine' and attacking seven journalists.
Abdur Razzak and his associates arranged the arbitration on Wednesday and handed down the 'punishment' as the girl, despite being a Muslim, fled with neighbour Dinesh Chandra to get married with him a month ago.
Twenty to twenty-five villagers led by Razzak's son Shiplu beat up seven journalists when they went to the girl's house at around 3:20pm on Thursday to collect news about the incident.
The gang also snatched their cameras and confined them to a nearby house for one and a half hours.
On Friday afternoon, Information Minister Hasanul Haque Inu talked to Manikganj Press Club president AFM Nurtaz Alam Bahar and assaulted journalists Manikganj district correspondent of daily Prothom Alo Abdul Momin and Manikganj correspondent of Independent Television RS Monjur Rahman and assured them of exemplary punishment to the perpetrators.
Assistant superintendent of police of Manikganj Sadar Circle Md Josim Uddin said, "I visited the spot, talked to the villagers and found the village arbitrators guilty of lashing the girl 101 times and taking Tk 40,000 from her family members."
Prothom Alo Bandhusava yesterday formed a human chain in front of Manikganj Press Club demanding exemplary punishment of the perpetrators.