Members of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) have detained ten more people, including the ‘mastermind’ of the robbery incident after hijacking a Chattogram-bound bus in Tangail when a woman commuter was raped. The detainees were identified as mastermind Ratan Hossain, 21, Md Alauddin, 24, Sohag Mondol, 20, Khandakar Md Hasmat Ali alias Dipu, 23, Md Babu Hossain alias Julhas, 21, Md Jibon, 21, Md Abdul Mannan, 22, Md Nayeem Sarkar, 19, Russell Talukdar, 32, and Md Aslam Talukdar alias Raihan. The Rab members detained the 10 after conducting drives in Dhaka, Gazipur and Sirajganj on Sunday, Commander Khandaker Al Moin, director of the Legal and Media Wing of the Rab headquarters, said while briefing reporters on Monday. Rab also seized 20 mobile phone sets, two silver bangles, 14 SIM (subscriber identity module) cards and a sharp weapon used in robbery from their possession. During primary interrogation, it was known that mastermind Ratan served jail for one and a half years for robbing a bus of ‘Savar Paribahan’ along with Jibon, who was a helper of a bus, in 2018. After being released from jail on bail in 2020, Ratan snatched an auto-rickshaw and again jailed for another year. Read: Robbers loot commuters & rape woman on Ctg-bound bus After being released on bail, he and his gang committed robberies on the highways in Savar, Gazipur or Sirajganj areas. During the robbery in Tangail, Jibon was engaged in looting the goods of the passengers. Legal steps will be taken against the detainees, the official added. On August 3, the spine-chilling crime occurred in Raktipara area of Tangail's Madhupur upazila.  When the bus took the busy Dhaka-Tangail Highway in the Natiapara area, the seven robbers whiffed out guns, hijacked the vehicle, and drove it towards Madhupur upazila. Posing as passengers, the seven boarded the bus in two groups in a span of 10 minutes around 11pm after it resumed its onward journey following a stopover at a hotel in Sirajganj district. Twenty-four people, including 22 passengers and two staffers, were on board the bus of ‘Eagle Paribahan’ at the time. On a desolate stretch, the armed gang robbed the twenty-four people, including 22 passengers of cash, jewellery and mobile phones. They then blindfolded the passengers and raped the woman commuter on board. The passengers' ordeal continued for over three hours till the seven criminals forced them to get off the bus and drove the heavy vehicle towards Raktipara's Jam-e-Mosque, where they abandoned it and fled with the booty, police said. An FIR was lodged in connection with the robbery and rape. On Thursday, Raza Mia, 32, was arrested from the Deula area of Tangail district town, said police. Raza is a driver of ‘Jhatika Service’ bus in Tangail and lived in a rented house in Tangail new bus terminal area. During interrogation, Raza told cops that he was the one who drove the bus while others held the passengers and staff hostage at gunpoint, said Sarkar Md Kaisar, superintendent of Tangail Police.

Five people who were arrested over gang rape of a woman on moving bus after pushing her husband off it gave confessional statements before a Gazipur court on Sunday. Gazipur District Judicial Magistrate Court recorded their statement and sent them to jail after they were produced before court seeking remand to interrogate them, said Md Moniruzzaman, officer-in-Charge of Sreepur police station. The arrestees are Md Rakib Molla, 23, from Narayanganj, Sumon Khan, 20, from Netrakona, Md Sajib, 23, from Mymensingh, Md Shahin Mia from Haluaghat upazila, and Md Sumon Hasan, 22, from Khulna. Meanwhile, in forensic test of the rape survivor, primary evidence of rape was found, said Dr ANM Al Mamun, forensic department of Shahid Tajuddin Ahmed Medical Coollege and Hhspital. Read: Benapole press club president gets death threat “For further confirmation her DNA sample will be tested. We suggested conducting an x-ray of her head as she had injuries on forehead,” said the doctor. According to police, the couple hailing from Naogaon reached Gazipur Bhogra Bypass early Saturday by  a bus and got on another bus of Takwa Paribahan heading toward Mawna union in Sreepur upazila. As the bus reached near Chandna intersection on Dhaka-Mymensingh highway, three more staff of the bus got on it. When the bus reached near Hotapara bus stand the bus became empty as all the passengers except the couple got down. Read: Schoolgirl raped by 6 in Panchagarh After crossing the bus stand the five transport staff snatched money and mobile phones of the couple and shoved the husband down from the bus after beating him up. They then gang raped the woman until the bus reached Rajendrapur intersection, where they dumped the woman on road and absconded. Later, the woman’s husband filed a case with Sreepur police station. The five accused were arrested and the bus was seized after the case filing conducting a drive, said OC Moniruzzaman. 

Police arrested five transport workers in connection with an incident of gang rape on a running bus in the Rajendrapur area of Gazipur.The incident took place in the early hours of Saturday on a moving bus of Taqwa Paribahan, said Azizur Rahman, officer-in-charge (Investigation) of Sreepur Police Station.The identities of the arrestees are yet to be known.The victim and her husband boarded the bus from Bhogra to go to Sreepur. Near Rajendrapur, the other passengers were dropped leaving the victim and her husband alone. Read: Prime accused in Bagerhat gang rape case heldAt one point, the victim's husband was beaten and thrown off the bus and violated the woman.During the incident, the victim's mobile phone, and money were snatched.Later, the victim's husband complained to the police station.Police seized the bus and conducted a drive in the city and arrested them.Manjur Morshed, doctor of Shaheed Tajuddin Ahmed Medical College Hospital's emergency department said that the victim was admitted to the gynecology ward in the afternoon.

Out on a joyride with a male acquaintance, a 21-year-old woman was allegedly held hostage and raped by six men on a moving bus in Mirsarai upazila of Chattogram. All the six men, including the bus driver and helper, have been arrested from different parts of the district, police said on Saturday. The crime occurred in the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday morning, said officer-in-charge of Mirsarai Police Station, Mujibul Rahman. READ: Rajshahi child rape & murder case accused shot dead In her complaint to the police, the woman claimed that her male acquaintance took her out on Wednesday evening. The duo had boarded the bus from their native Sitakunda upazila. However, when the bus reached the Hafiz Jute Mill area, the driver and the helper forced all passengers to get down. But they didn't let the woman and her acquaintance to get off. Subsequently, the duo, along with the four others, took turns to rape her. The woman's ordeal didn't end there. She was forcibly taken to a house in the upazila and raped over the next 24 hours, according to the complaint. On her complaint, police lodged a case and arrested the six men from different parts of Sitakunda and Mirsarai upazilas, and Chattogram city on Friday night. The arrestees have been identified as Ashraful Islam, 23, Shahadat Hossain, 19, Nizamuddin Rana, 20, Belal Hossain, 23, Mohammad Ismail, 31, of Sitakunda upazila and Mohammad Sagar Hossain, 22, of Mirsarai upazila. The woman, a garment factory worker, was sent to Chattogram Medical College and Hospital for a medical examination. SM Rashidul Haque, superintendent of District Police, said, “We have taken the case seriously and six people were arrested in this connection." Bangladesh's rape epidemic Sexual assaults on women continue unabated in Bangladesh, despite the government introducing death penalty for rapes last year. A police headquarters report, released recently, said that 26,695 rape cases were filed across the country in the past five years. Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK) data shows that 1,018 children were raped last year alone, but only 683 police cases had been filed. Also, 116 survivors were six years old or below. Overall, 1,627 rape cases were reported last year and 53 of the women were killed by the perpetrators while 14 took their own lives, as per the data. However, ASK's data is just the tip of the iceberg, according to aid agencies, who report that most women are too afraid to report rape. READ: Nasir, Omi put on 5-day remand over ‘rape attempt’ on Pori Moni In October 2020, the country was rocked by protests after a woman was allegedly attacked and raped in Noakhali. In November last year, Bangladesh introduced capital punishment for rape, following days of protests against sexual violence against women in several cities across the country. But human rights organisations say the move will not solve the country's rape crisis, as the survivors of the heinous crime are often stigmatised in the society.