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.
