A gang of young men allegedly kidnapped a couple and their baby from the sea beach in Cox's Bazar on Wednesday afternoon, took them to a desolate place and then to a local hotel where three of them raped the woman for hours. The crime came to light early on Thursday morning when the woman dialled 999 and sought help from police, said an officer of Rab-15, Major Mehedi Hasan. "Already we have identified two of the accused and efforts are on to arrest the culprits." In her police complaint, the 22-year-old woman claimed that she came to Cox's Bazar with her husband and their eight-month-old baby on Wednesday morning and checked into a hotel. Read: Mother-daughter gang raped; 2 arrested In the afternoon, the family went out for a stroll on the sea beach. At Laboni point, the woman's husband had an altercation with one of the accused after he accidentally bumped into the latter. What started as a small argument soon snowballed into a major altercation and the young man called his accomplices to the spot. They kidnapped the family in two auto-rickshaws and took them to a desolate place near the golf club where three of them allegedly violated the woman. The woman's ordeal didn't end there. The family was taken to Zia Guest Inn from the golf club area, where the three accused again took turns to rape her for hours. They released her in the early hours of Thursday and allegedly threatened to kill her family if she narrated her ordeal to anyone.

Police Wednesday arrested a 70-year-old man for "raping" a third-grader in Narail's Lohagara upazila. Lohagora Police Station Inspector (Investigation) Md Mahmudur Rahman said the accused, Hannan Molla, violated the girl as she went to pick vegetables from his field on April 1. Later, as the 10-year-old girl disclosed the incident to her parents, they tried to provide her with medical treatment secretly and did not bring it to the notice of the police due to social stigma. However, the third-grader was admitted to Narail Sadar Hospital on Wednesday as her condition worsened.  Also read: Don’t reveal identities of sexual harassment, rape victims: HC The victim's mother finally lodged a case against the accused, Hannan, on the same day, and the police arrested him, Mahmudur Rahman said. Bangladesh's rape epidemic The introduction of the death penalty for rape has failed to curb the prevalence of the crime in Bangladesh. Ain o Salish Kendra data shows that 1,018 children were raped last year alone, but only 683 police cases were filed. Also, 116 victims were 6 years old or below. Overall, 1,627 rape incidents were reported last year and 53 of the victims were killed by the perpetrators while 14 took their own lives, the data showed. Also read: Police HQ: 26,695 rape cases filed in 5 yrs, with notable jump since 2019 In November last year, Bangladesh introduced the death penalty for rape, following days of protests against sexual violence against women. In October 2020, the country was rocked by protests after a woman was attacked and raped in Noakhali. A police headquarters report, published in March this year, said 26,695 rape cases had been filed across the country in the last five years.