A teenage indigenous girl gang raped in Manikchari
Right before the day of International Women’s Day, on 7 March 2014 at around 12:30 pm, a 19-year old indigenous girl was gang raped by a group of three Bengali settlers of Pichlatala union under Manikchari upazila in Khagrachari district. Police arrested Shahidul Islam (25) son of Samsul Haque, Mahbub Alam (27) son of Sohrab Howlader, and Billal Hossain (24) son of Fazlur Farazi in this connection.
It is learnt that the victim, who work as a domestic worker in Chittagong district, went to Khagrachari town for a visit in the morning on the day of the incident. After visiting for few hours in the town, she took a Feni bound bus and got off at a place named Jaliapara to catch a Chittagong bound bus to go to her home in Manikchari. Accordingly she managed to catch a Chittagong bound bus from Jaliapara. When the bus reached Gobamara areas, the supervisor of the bus asked for fair. In response, she offered him TK. 10 instead of regular fair of TK. 15 as she did not have any more money left in her purse. But the supervisor nagged her to pay Tk. 15 and forced her to get off the bus at some point.
Some Bengali settlers at a nearby tea stall noticed this incident and asked what had happened. She explained the incident to them and said that she did not have any money left with her to return home. Then they called a local motorcycle driver named Shahidul Islam belonging to Bengali settler community to send her home.
When Shahidul and the indigenous girl reached Pichlatola areas, Shahidul spoke to Sohrab and Billal over mobile phone, and told her that since he did not possess a driving license, they would have to take an alternate route through the jungles. After a little while along that jungle road, Shahidul and Billal appeared as planned over phone. Then all three of them raped her forcibly and left alone in the jungle.
Afterwards, she managed to walk all the way back to Gobamara and informed local Bengali settlers about the incident. The culprits were immediately captured by the locals, led by UP Chairman Abul Kalam, and handed over to the police. The girl was sent to the Khagrachari General Hospital for medical examination on the same day. Medical examination report is yet to be published. The doctors is refusing to provide report.
A case was filed with Manikchari police station by Mr. Chi Thoai Marma, son of Kajo Marma, a relative of the victim. The court sent the perpetrators to the jail.
