Beasts unleashed

She was raped by eight men for hours until Wednesday midnight while her husband was struggling to free his hands tied to a tree outside.

Released after the gang-rape at Kajupara village in Puthia upazila of Rajshahi, the couple went straight to Puthia police around 2:30am yesterday and described their horrific experience, Officer-in-Charge Sayedur Rahman said.

The victim's husband filed a case against eight men with Puthia Police Station. Police arrested seven of the accused, reports our staff correspondent in Rajshahi. 

The arrestees are Mizanur Rahman, 28, Nabir Hossain, 28, Saiful Islam, 40, Nizam Uddin, 35, Moslem Uddin, 42, Amirul Islam, 37, and Zahedul Islam, 33, of Kajupara and Gopalpara in the upazila. Police seized a number of machetes and knives from their possession.

According to the couple's account, the eight men waylaid them on Taherpur-Puthia road around 7:30pm on Wednesday when they were going to their Bilmaria village home from their rented house at Taherpur by a rickshaw-van.

They abducted the couple threatening them with sharp weapons and took them to Mizanur's rest house beside a pond in the village. The victim's husband was then tied to a tree before the gang-rape.

Later, the perpetrators threatened to kill them.

“They were talking about killing us,” the victim's husband told reporters and police at the police station. They released the couple around 1:00am on condition that they would not disclose the matter.

On information, police led by the OC raided the house and caught Mizanur.

As per Mizanur's statement, police later arrested six others. Another accused managed to escape.

All the accused are well-known drug and arms peddlers. They had been engaged in different criminal activities in the area, said Sayedur, OC of Puthia police.

Meanwhile, a union parishad chairman allegedly raped and tortured a woman on Wednesday night at his office in Charbata of Noakhali, reports our correspondent there.

The victim, a mother of a two-and-a-half-year old child, is undergoing treatment at Noakhali General Hospital.

Talking to this correspondent, the victim of Subarnachar upazila said after her husband abandoned her a couple of years ago, she had a relationship with Robiul Hossain, who hid the information of his marital status. When she learnt that Robiul was married, she broke it off.

But Robiul went to her house on Wednesday night and the victim and her family then informed the chairman of the matter.

Charbata UP Chairman Mozammel Hossain then called her, Robiul and her family members to his office around 10:00pm.

Hearing their statements, he started hurling abuse at her and even beat up Robiul. Later, he drove everyone out of his office, alleged the victim.

The chairman then raped her, she said, adding that he beat her up when she threatened to disclose the matter.

Contacted, the chairman denied the allegation of rape and tried to malign her character.

The victim first went to file a complaint with Char Jabbar Police Station against the chairman yesterday but police did not record it, she said. Later, following persuasion by journalists and locals, police recorded her complaint, she added.

Iqbal Hossain, officer-in-charge (investigation) of the police station, said the woman filed a complaint of rape against the UP chairman. After medical examinations, it would be confirmed whether it was a rape incident, he said.