BCL leader, aides tie man, rape wife at Jahangirnagar University
Jahangirnagar University students stage protests on the campus on Sunday, demanding punishment for Bangladesh Chhatra League leader Mustafizur Rahman and his associates on rape allegation. (Collected photo)
Bangladesh desk: A woman was reportedly raped by a Bangladesh Chhatra League Jahangirnagar University unit leader and his associates on the university campus on Saturday night, while her husband was kept confined inside a dormitory room.
The police on Sunday arrested four accused, including prime accused ruling Awami League’s student wing BCL’s JU unit international affairs secretary Mustafizur Rahman who is a former student of the university.
Jahangirnagar University students stage protests on the campus on Sunday, demanding punishment for Bangladesh Chhatra League leader Mustafizur Rahman and his associates on rape allegation. — New Age photo
A woman was reportedly raped by a Bangladesh Chhatra League Jahangirnagar University unit leader and his associates on the university campus on Saturday night, while her husband was kept confined inside a dormitory room.
The police on Sunday arrested four accused, including prime accused ruling Awami League’s student wing BCL’s JU unit international affairs secretary Mustafizur Rahman who is a former student of the university.
Other accused are Mustafizur’s associates Mamunur Rashid, Mostafa Monwar Siddiki Sagar, Sabbir Hossain, Hasanuzzaman and Murad Hasan.
Mostafa Monwar Siddiki Sagar, Sabbir Hossain, Hasanuzzaman have been arrested, while Mamunur and Murad remain absconding.
Of the accused, Mamunur is not a student of JU.
Dhaka judicial magistrate court on Sunday placed four JU students on a three-day remand each in a rape case filed with the Ashulia police by the survivor’s husband against six people.
Teachers and students of the university staged daylong protests, including boycotting classes, demanding strict actions against the perpetrators by the university, filing of a case by the JU authorities and ousting non-student BCL men from the JU student dormitories.
The university authorities on the day suspended three accused, Mostafa Monwar Siddiki Sagar, Sabbir Hossain and Murad Hasan, who are its current students, withheld the certificates of total six current and former students reportedly involved in the incident and declared them unwanted on the campus.
The university authorities have also formed a three-member investigation committee.
Different organisations expressed concern and protested against the incident.
BCL central committee on Sunday permanently expelled prime accused Mustafizur Rahman for his alleged involvement in the incident.
‘Two youths held a man hostage, picked up his wife and raped her in the jungle area on the university campus as the couple was visiting the campus on invitation from their neighbour Mamunur Rashid,’ said Dhaka district additional superintendent of police (crime, traffic, and operations) Abdullah Hil Kafi.
According to the case statement, Mamunur earlier lived as a sub-let tenant of the survivor couple in a neighbourhood of Savar upazila.
The police recorded the rape survivor’s statement, he added.
According to her statement, JU BCL leader Mustafizur and his associate Mamunur raped the woman taking her to an isolated place inside the botanical garden on the campus at about 9:00pm.
Police on Sunday arrest four people, including Bangladesh Chhatra League’s JU unit international affairs secretary Mustafizur Rahman, for raping a woman on the university campus Saturday night. — Collected photo
The perpetrators confined her husband at room number 317 of Mir Mosharraf Hossain Hall.
They released the man at about 10:30pm when he found his wife in front of the dormitory in a critical condition.
A group of BCL men ousted the couple from the campus and beat the man as he tried to protest at the incident.
The couple filed a complaint with the Ashulia police and a team from there conducted a drive on the campus at about 1:00am on Sunday to arrest the perpetrators.
The police also collected specimens from the scene.
The accused, along with his three associates, fled the campus by breaking open the lock of Mir Mosharraf Hossain Hall.
‘We have detained three JU students Sagar, Sabbir and Hasan as they had helped the accused to escape,’ officer-in-charge of Savar Model Police Station Abdur Rashik said.
Later on Sunday morning, the Ashulia police arrested Mustafizur in Savar Bazar area.
Dhaka judicial magistrate court on Sunday placed four JU students on a three-day remand each in the rape case.
Senior judicial magistrate Rabeya Begum passed the order after police inspector Mizanur Rahman produced them before the court, seeking seven days’ remand for interrogation.
Opposing the remand petitions, the defence lawyer submitted bail petition for the accused, but the court rejected the pleas after hearing.
Sagar, Sabbir, Hasan and prime accused Mustafizur all are followers of JU BCL president Akhtaruzzaman Shohel.
BCL central committee, in a press release on Sunday, permanently expelled Mustafizur for his involvement in the incident.
As soon as the news of the rape spread, teachers and students of the university staged a sit-in in front of the dormitory at about 4:00am on Sunday.
Over 300 teachers, students and senate members locked the administrative building of the university in the morning, demanding that the university authorities file case against the perpetrators, withhold their certificates, oust non-students BCL men from the student halls, and have the Mir Mosharraf Hossain Hall provost resigned for allowing non-student BCL men to stay at the dormitory.
Students of several departments, including Bengali, philosophy and archaeology, boycotted their classes and examinations, protesting against the JU administration alleging that they ‘helped’ the accused flee and ‘sheltered’ them.
Philosophy professor Rayhan Rhyne said, ‘This incident results from the impunity the university administration gives to the non-student BCL men.’
‘The long-established culture of impunity has made the BCL men even more ferocious. It is the responsibility of the university administration as they have sheltered non-student BCL men at the dormitory,’ convener of JU unit Bangladesh Chhatra Union Alif Mahmud said.
The protesters also brought out a torch procession on Sunday evening.
JU vice chancellor Nurul Alam said, ‘In an emergency syndicate meeting, we have decided to suspend three current students of the university—Sagar, Sabbir and Murad and withhold the certificates of total six former and present students allegedly involved in the incident.’
Mustafizur, Hasan and Shah Poran are three other men whose certificates have been upheld, he said.
The vice chancellor also said that JU BCL unit vice president Shah Poran, who has not been named in the police case, gave the order to break the lock of the dormitory to allow the rapists to flee.
JU administration informed reporters that Shah Poran is a former student of international relations at the university, who passed several years ago, but stayed at the Mir Mosharraf Hossain Hall.
All the six men have been declared unwanted on the campus, the VC said.
The protesters however, rejected these decisions and vowed to continue their protest, demanding that the JU authorities file a case against the perpetrators.
A three-member investigation committee headed by deputy registrar for legal affairs Mahtab Uz Zahid has been formed and asked to submit its report within 15 working days.
JU Teachers Association, pro-Awami League teachers’ body Bangabandhu Shikkhak Parishad and pro-BNP teachers’ body Shikkhak Oikyo Parishad protested at the incident in separate press releases.
JU unit BCL staged a human chain on the campus at about noon, demanding exemplary punishment of the accused.
A section of Dhaka University students and different student organisations, including Democratic Students Force, Bangladesh Chhatra Odhikar Parishad and Bangladesh Students’ Union staged demonstration separately on Sunday protesting against the incident.
Bangladesh Mahila Parishad in a statement issued on Sunday demanded punishment of the perpetrators.
Repeated incidents of torture on students by leaders and activists of the BCL are increasing in the recent years in the major public universities.
Islamic University in Kushtia in August 2023 expelled five of its students—a former BCL leader and four former BCL activists—for torturing a first-year female student at Deshratna Sheikh Hasina Hall on February 12.
On September 25, 2020, eight BCL activists allegedly raped a newlywed woman in the male hostel of the MC College at Tilagarh in Sylhet city, keeping her husband confined to the hostel.
Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology student Abrar Fahad was beaten to death at his hall on October 7, 2019 by then BCL leaders and activists of the BUET unit over his Facebook post criticising a water-sharing deal with India.
