Rape rises in frequency:Daily Sun

 The incidence of rape has now been unabated in the capital and elsewhere in the country as scores of women and children have fallen victim to it despite a tough law being in place to prevent the worst form of violence against women. As many as 527 women, including 142 children, were victimised by rapists during the January-September period, according to an Ain O Salish Kendra report. Some 289 wom
en fell prey to forced coitus while attempts were made on 72 women. Of the total victims, 166 were gang-raped. At least 291 cases were filed with different police stations in this connection. “Forty-three women, including 13 children, were killed after rape while 11 victims committed suicide,” the report reveals. Meanwhile, Bangla-desh Mahila Parishad says the number of rapes was 307 in 2008, 393 in 2009, 593 in 2010, 635 in 2011, 508 in 2012, 696 in 2013 and 544 in the last 10 months in 2014. Ayesha Khanam, president of Bangladesh Mahila Parishad, said, “Rape has been a major tool of violence, and women are being tortured brutally before and after rape.” A culture of impunity, bias by law-enforcers and administration, social and political unrest, drug addiction and lack of awareness are major contributors to the rise in rape incidents. Even on Tuesday, a 22-year-old married woman was reportedly raped at a marriage registrar’s office in the capital’s Maghbazar area. The victim, reportedly violated by an assistant registrar when she came to collect her kabinnama (nuptial document), now undergoes treatment at Dhaka Medical College Hospital. Quoting the victim, Sub-inspector Jahirul Islam of Ramna police station said: “She went to the marriage registrar’s office around 11:00am to collect her kabinnama. The culprit, Nurul Huda told her to wait in a room inside the office and reportedly violated her.” Later, police arrested the rapist immediately after the woman had filed a case against him with Ramna police station the same day. Advocate Rabiul Islam, panel lawyer of Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust, said because of a backlog of rape cases, rapists escape punishment only to encourage committing the same crime again and again. “Exemplary punishment to the culprits would only help stop commission of such crime,” he observed. Expressing concern over rise in rape incidents across the country, Rabiul said rape incidents are on the rise also due to the misuse of technology.