Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Samity, a passengers’ welfare platform, published the report.
At least 21 women were either raped or gang-raped on public transportation across the country in the last 13 months, according to a report published by Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Samity, a passengers’ welfare platform.
The report, published on Thursday based on media reports, also stated that nine of the victims were gang-raped by drivers and helpers of the vehicles.
Cases were filed in connection with all the incidents except a gang rape incident that happened in Manikganj on April 9, 2017. Police have so far arrested 55 people in connection with the incidents.
On January 21, 2017, a Dhaka University student filed a sexual harassment case with the Darussalam police station against a bus driver and an assistant of the Gabtoli-Nabinagar route.
The incident took place at Gabtoli Bus Terminal. Later, the police arrested the duo, according to the report.
A schoolgirl was gang-raped by an easybike driver and two others when she failed to pay the fare in Chuadanga’s Almadanga area on November 13, 2017.
On April 9, 2017, a woman was raped in front of her husband in a running bus on the Dhaka-Aricha highway.
On July 31, 2017, a girl was gang-raped in a bus of Padma Paribahan in Roumari, Kurigram on her way to Dhaka.
On the way to Narayanganj from Gazipur, driver Mahedi Hassan and his aid Sohan allegedly gang-raped a teenage girl on a moving truck on August 1, 2017. Police later arrested the driver.
On August 8, 2017, a man named Imran Hossain attempted to rape a girl in a car in Dhaka’s Banani area after kidnapping her. Police arrested Imran and seized the car.
On August 11, 2017, a madrasa student in Class VII in Mymensingh’s Muktagacha area was repeatedly raped by driver Joynal Abedin and helper Ripon. The police arrested them after the victim’s uncle filed a case.
The reports also mentioned that Zakia Sultana Rupa was raped and killed in a bus heading to Mymensingh by the driver and three of his assistants on August 25, 2017.
A Tangail court on February 12 sentenced the driver and his three assistants to death and handed seven years’ imprisonment to the bus supervisor for the offences.
This article was first published on Dhaka Tribune