A NEWS BLOG

Arbitration saves rapist in Bangladesh

Arbitrators fine him Tk 50,000, ask victim not to file case

Our Correspondent, Dinajpur

So, you can put a price tag on rape! At least that's what a local Awami League leader in Dinajpur and his associates think.
They in a village arbitration fined an alleged rapist Tk 50,000 and let him go. That's not all. They also set a condition that the victim cannot take legal actions against the offender.
On Friday afternoon, a 15-year-old girl was allegedly raped by a 50-year-old man in Chowdhurypara village of Parbatipur upazila.
According to the victim's family, the eighth-grader went to a nearby field to check on their goats grazing there.
Finding her alone, Nur Islam picked her up, took her to his house which was close by, tied her hands and legs and gagged her mouth, and raped her.
Upon being released, the girl, devastated and traumatised as she was, returned home and broke down in tears as she told her parents of the horrendous incident.
When the parents went to Mominul Islam, a member of local Chandipur union parishad and an AL leader, he arranged the arbitration at the rapist's house on Saturday night.

There, Nur Islam was fined Tk 50,000 payable to the girl's family by August 20.
The 15-member jury at the arbitration also set a condition that the victim's family must not file any case in this connection.
"They imposed the decision on us. We didn't want money. We wanted justice," said the victim's mother while talking to this correspondent yesterday.
"We are in deep problems after the incident. I have knocked every door but nobody is helping us to lodge a case. Even the UP chairman [Afsar Ali, a BNP leader] stayed away.
"Nobody even came forward to help us arrange treatment for her," the mother said before breaking down in tears.
Nur Islam fled the village the moment the arbitration ended, according to villagers.
A number of people, who were present at the four-hour arbitration that lasted till 3:00 in the morning, said Mominul and the other 14 arbitrators took bribe from the alleged rapist for passing the "soft judgment".
"Once the girl's parents started moving for justice, Nur Islam went to Momin Member and requested him to settle it," said a man, close to the member of Chandipur UP's Ward-9 and saw everything at close quarters.
"The whole arbitration was a charade. The judgment was finalised even before it began," he said, wishing anonymity.
"Before the arbitration began, Nur Islam had reached a deal with Mominul that he would pay Tk 50,000 to the jury members and another Tk 50,000 to the victim. In return, the jury would have to let him go scot-free," he said.
Officer-in-Charge Mahmudul Alam of Parbatipur Police Station told this newspaper that he learned about the incident yesterday morning and would take action after a case was filed.
This correspondent called Mominul Islam on his phone several times for his comments but he never responded.

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Bangladeshi expat killed in Dhaka

Staff Correspondent

Around six to seven armed men stormed the flat of a man who just returned from the US and stabbed him to death yesterday. The incident happened at Bhasantek in the capital.
The dead is Monsur Rahman, 59.
The assailants also took away 25 tolas of gold ornaments, 1.5 lakh in cash, two laptops and other valuables from the flat in a five-storey building.
Sufia Rahman, the victim's wife, told The Daily Star that around 7:10pm the criminals entered the flat finding its door open and started to look for one Sumon. Monsur was out then.
”When the killers were told that no one named Sumon lived there, they said they would search for him themselves,” she said.
At one point, the criminals tied the hands of the five family members, including Sufia and her daughter Jhumur, with rope.
When Monsur entered the flat after offering his prayers in a local mosque, his hands were tied as well. He was stabbed six to seven times in the back the moment he tried to resist the killers, Sufia said, sobbing uncontrollably.
The assailants fled afterwards. Locals rushed in and rescued the family hearing their screams for help.
Monsur was rushed to a local hospital where duty doctors declared him dead, said sources.
The victim went to the USA around five years ago and had been living in New York. He returned to Bangladesh on June 15 to see his doctor daughter.

Roadside bombs kill 12 civilians in Afghanistan: officials

Afp, Kabul

At least 12 civilians were killed in twin roadside bomb blasts in Afghanistan, officials said yesterday, blaming the attacks on the Taliban as the militants intensify their summer offensive.
A roadside bomb ripped through a passenger van on Saturday in Tagab district of Kapisa, an often restive province in the mountains east of the Afghan capital Kabul, killing 10 civilians and wounding six others, provincial officials said.
"A civilian van travelling from Kabul to Alasay district of Kapisa hit a roadside bomb planted by the Taliban," Qais Qaderi, a spokesman for the provincial governor, told AFP.
"Ten civilians, all men, were killed. Three children and three women were wounded," he said.
Abdul Karim Fayeq, the provincial police chief, confirmed the incident and blamed the Taliban for the blast.
No one has claimed responsiblity for the attack but roadside bombs have been the Taliban's weapon of choice in their war against foreign and Afghan security forces, now in its 14th year.
The bombs also increasingly kill and wound civilians.

Mohammad Hussain Sanjari, head of the provincial council of Kapisa, said the wounded civilians were taken to a local hospital for treatment.
In another incident, at least two civilians were killed and four civilians and two police were wounded when a police vehicle hit a roadside bomb in Kunduz city yesterday, provincial police spokesman Sayed Sarwar Husseini told AFP.
The insurgents launched a countrywide offensive in late April, stepping up attacks on government and foreign targets in what is expected to be the bloodiest fighting season in a decade.
The Taliban, who promised to "safeguard" civilian lives during their offensive, are known to distance themselves from attacks that result in high civilian casualties.
The surge in insurgents attacks has taken a heavy toll on ordinary Afghans, according to the UN mission in Afghanistan.
Almost 1,000 civilians were killed during the first four months of this year, a sharp jump from the same period last year, the UN said.