Author: Staff Correspondent, Khulna
Publication: The Daily Star Internet
Edition
Date: December 1, 2001
URL: http://www.dailystarnews.com/200112/01/n1120101.htm#BODY7
At least five women and a girl belonging
to the Hindu community were gangraped by an armed gang at Gopalpur village
under Kachua upazila in Bagerhat district on November 16, some of the victims
and their family members alleged while talking to this correspondent on
Thursday.
They said they did not disclose
the incident so long as the miscreants threatened to kill them if they
did so or complain to police.
The miscreants forcibly entered
five houses at about midnight, gangraped the women and an eleven-year-old
girl and also took away gold ornaments, they alleged.
But no male nor female member of
any of these five families could identify the armed miscreants.
Even a pregnant women was not spared,
they claimed. "I had to pay Tk 6,000 for freeing my pregnant wife from
being kidnapped by the miscreants," said the husband of one of the alleged
victims.
The miscreants also asked them to
leave their homes for good, they alleged.
Kachua thana police refuted the
allegation as none of the victims lodged any complaint.
"Yet, I shall definitely investigate
the matter," said the OC of the thana.
Meanwhile, Shubol Chandra Das, Head
Master of Satgambuj Union BSC Secondary School under Sadar upazilla of
Bagerhat district, said at a press conference on Tuesday that the minority
community was being used as a political tool by vested groups to destroy
the communal harmony.
Terming newspaper reports as "concocted,"
Shubol Chandra claimed that there has been no incident of rape of Hindu
women or any sort of persecution in any village under Sadar upazila. He
claimed that there was no rape incident in Srighat and Sadullapur villages.
He further claimed that no fish
farm was looted in Sadar upazila as was alleged by some vested quarters.
No Hindu family so far left for
India fearing attack, Shubol Chandra told the press conference, held at
Bagerhat Press Club.
Many distinguished members of the
minority community from four villages in Sadar upazila were present at
the press conference.
