Hill Voice, 4 September 2023, Rangamati: It has been alleged that a 16-year-old Marma girl was forcibly gang-raped by 6 army personnel with civil dress of the Bangladesh military forces in Raikhali Union of Kaptai Upazila under Rangamati District.
According to local sources, yesterday Sunday (September 3) at approximately 9:00 am, 6 military personnel of the Mitingachari army camp of Raikhali union under 56 Bengal of Kaptai army zone, gang-raped a SSC candidate of Mitingyachari village of Ward No. 8 of Raikhali union.
After the incident, the camp authorities called the gang-rape victim’s family and the Karbari of the village to the camp and ordered them not to disclose to anyone and threatened the victim’s family with dire consequences if they disclosed.
At present, the condition of the raped girl is in critical physical and mental condition. It is learnt that this incident has caused a lot of anger among the local people.
It is to be noted that on January 22, 2018 at 2:30 am, a Marma girl (17) was raped at her home and her younger sister (15) was molested by the soldiers of Farua army camp at Orachari village of Ward No. 3 of Farua Union under Bilaichhari Upazila. At that time, without taking any action against the accused army personnel, the army authorities kept the two Marma girls, victims of violence, under house arrest in army custody.
It is also worthy to mention that from January to June 2023, there have been 12 incidents of violence against Jumma women and girls in which 11 women have been victims of human rights violations. Out of 12 incidents, only 2 accused persons were arrested by the police. At least 24 accused persons in the remaining 10 incidents were remained out of arrest.
Among the 12 incidents, on May 27, 2023, a policeman working in Sonali Bank Limited attempted to rape and sexually assaulted a Jumma schoolgirl studying in class IV in Jurachhari upazila.
It should be noted that so far none of the incidents of violence against Jumma women and girls have been properly prosecuted. Due to this lack of justice, criminals get away and commit such incidents again and again. As a result, Jumma women today are forced to live in extreme insecurity.
One of the such examples of which is Karlyachari Rashid Sarkar High School head teacher Abdur Rahim, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for raping his own school girl, but the high court granted bail through fraud, can be mentioned as one of the examples of injustice.
