A 50-year-old Imam has been arrested from Bangladesh’s Chittagong for holding a 14-year-old female madrasa student captive for two days and raping her repeatedly, as per a report by Dhaka Tribune.
Abul Bashar- an Imam in a local mosque at Chandina’s Teerchar confessed to his crimes during initial interrogation. He was picked up by the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) from Sadar Dakkhin late on Monday.
As reported by Bangladeshi media, Commander Maj Md Sakib Hossain of RAB informed the media that Bashar had kept the minor captive on July 22 and 23. On July 24, the girl became sick due to repeated assaults.
Bashar then left the girl with her brother and fled the spot. He had been on the run since then. Subsequently, the police launched a manhunt after the minor’s father registered a complaint against Bashar. Bashar had been assigned to teach Arabic to the girl by her family.
Bashar, during the preliminary investigation, confessed to tricking the girl and confining her to his home. He also confessed to raping her.
Sexual assault cases on a rise in Bangladesh
As per the report, despite the government introducing death penalty for rape in November last year, cases of sexual assaults on women are on a rise.
As many as 26,695 rape cases were filed across Bangladesh in the past five years, revealed a Police Headquarters report which was released recently.
Data released by an activist group suggests at least 1,018 children were raped in the last year alone, but only 683 police cases had been filed. Out of these, 116 rape survivors were six years old or below.
According to the date, a total of 1,627 rape cases were reported last year out of which 53 women were killed by the perpetrators while 14 took their own lives. Revealing data of the first half of the current year, Bangladesh reported 532 rapes and 139 gang rapes.
The activist group believes the numbers could be much high as most women fear to lodge a complaint.
