19 ethnic minority women faced sexual assaults in two divisions last year

At least 19 ethnic minority women and girls in the Rajshahi and Rangpur divisions faced sexual assault – including rape, rape after abduction, murder after rape, physical assault, attempted rape, and kidnapping – last year.         

Most of the incidents took place in the last four months of 2020, Adivasi Nari O Shishu Kallyan Sangstha said in a report on Monday.        

According to the report: seven ethnic minoirty women were raped, one was murdered after rape, one was physically assaulted, nine were victims of attempted rape, and one was abducted.

Only two rapists were sentenced in 2020, while most of the assault cases are ongoing.

Of the 19 violent incidents against ethnic women and girls, two cases – Rukhia Raut's rape and murder in Dinajpur, and a rape at a Rajshahi church by the victim's father – caused massive outcries in the past year.      

Rukhia, an honours final year student of Carmichael College in Rangpur city, was on her way to her dormitory, from her home in Adivasi Palli Missionpara in Badarganj upazila of Rangpur, on the afternoon of 5 October, said her father. 

Police recovered Rukhia's body the next day from Panchpukuria village in Parbatipur upazila of Dinajpur. 

The victim's father, Dinesh Raut, filed a murder case with local police, who arrested three persons in this connection on Thursday.

On 26 September last year, an underage indigenous girl in Rajshahi went missing adjacent to a church where she was cutting grass. Her brother filed a police complaint the next day.  

After arresting the father, police said he had kept the girl confined at the church in Tanore for three days and raped her.