Incident of Jatrapur Union, Komarpur, Thakurbari

We reached the place of occurrence - Jatrapur Union Komarpur 25 kilometers from Bagerhat town at about 1 p.m.on 14^th March,2003 and saw that three armed police constables and one Havilder were on duty in the house of  Niranjan Bhattacharjee. We saw one 80 years old lady named Ms.Sarwasati Bhattacharjee(mother of Niranjan ) burst into tears as soon as we asked her to tell the incident of torture upon them on the night of 9^th March,2003. Ms.Sarwasati Bhattaacharjee told us that at about 2-30 a.m.. 12/14 terrorists armed with deadly weapons such as Dao, Kirish, and Revolver entered into the house of Niranjan through the kitchen wearing black masks and caught hold of her son Tapan Bhattacharjee and tied him by a rope and started to attack with sharp weapon in presence of other members of their family and some of the terrorists made several fatal injuries on the head of Sawpan Bhattacharjee who is a police constable. In this opportunity some of the terrorists looted valuables, ornaments, gold, valuable utensils etc. amounting to taka 1,60,000/- The terrorists caught hold of the daughter of Niranjan Ms.Lata Rani Bhattacharjee(13) and started to rape her in a room one after another. Some terrorists caught hold of Ms.Anima Bhattacharjee(19) and Ms.Shewli Bhattacharjee(22) and started to rape and confined Sawpan in a room tied with a piece of cloth in his mouth forcefully. Tapan Bhattacharjee fell on the ground bleeding profusely and one of the killers said to the terrified family members showing bundle  of taka 500 notes. “ See we came here to collect the head of Niranjan in exchange  for one lakh taka , since we have not found Niranjan , we legitimized this money by killing his younger brother, we are not leaving until he dies.” The dead body of Tapan was lying in a pool of blood. The incident of looting, rape, killing, and arson continued in that house since two hours and the terrorists left the house with joy and happiness.

During incident, the neighbors heard screams and cries for help, but dared not to come to their rescue for fear of life.” We asked the following persons who admitted the fact and requested us to take drastic action against the culprits responsible for killing and rape :
 

1. Ms.Bakul Chakravorty wife of Sadhan Chakravorty of Komarpur, Bagerhat

2. Amal Krishna Dey son of Prafullah Kumar Dey of Komarpur Bagerhat

3. Mirza Manirul Islam son of late Abdul Ali of Kormarpur, Bagehat

4. Havilder No.68 Md. Abul Hossain

5. C/1026 Md. Amjad Hossain

6. C/943 Biswanath Halder

7. C/942 Md. Bazlur Rahaman

8. Ajit Kumar Basu, Businessman

9. Haripada Das, Assistant Manager, Jiban Bima Corporation.

 We also asked the O/C Bagerhat P.s. to supply us the copy of complaint filed in his thana and a case No.12 dated 9.3.2003 has been started against the criminals responsible for the offence under section 302 of Bangladesh Penal code. And another rape case No.13 has been started against the accused responsible for the gang-rape. We also came to know that the medical report indicates that the two women have been gang-raped. And in this connection accused 1) Harun Sheikh, 2) Abdur Rahman, 3) Kabir and 4) Delwar Hossain were arrested in this connection and they under interrogation and the accused confessed their guilt in the Magistrate court at Bagerhat. We found the local U.P. Chairman – Noor Mohammad Sheikh along with the complainant – Niranjan Bhattacharjee in the local police station and asked them to wait. But the U.P. Chairman Noor Mohammad (BNP) wanted to convince us that this is simply a robbery case. We asked the local U.P. chairman if it is a robbery case considering the manner in which the three women have been subjected to torture and rape on the same night. The chairman could not reply our question.
 We, on behalf of HRCBM paid some amount of money to the victim Ms. Sarwasati Bhattacharjee (80) who received injuries due to scuffle and we knew that nobody came forward with cash money for their subsistence at this critical period.

Picture (courtesy HRCBM-Dhaka): Deceased Tapan Bhattacherjee (40) who was brutally killed by the terrorist. Tapan's wife(Mrs. Anima Bhattacherjee was also subjected brutal gang rape.	Picture (courtesy HRCBM-Dhaka): Adv. Rabindra ghosh of HRCBM trying to comfort and provide assurance of justice to the mother of deceased Tapan Bhattacherjee.
Picture (courtesy HRCBM-Dhaka): HRCBM representatives are talking with the villagers and taking interviews. Police are deployed temporarily in the area during HRCBM's visit .
Picture (courtesy HRCBM-Dhaka): Adv. Rabindra Ghosh of HRCBM-Dhaka talking with victim of brutal gang rape Mrs. Anima Bhattacherjee. Terrorist has also killed her husband. She is currently under treatment at Khulna Medical Hospital.	Picture (courtesy HRCBM-Dhaka): Adv. Ghosh of HRCBM talking with the daughter of deceased Tapan Bhattacherjee at kumarpur, Bagherhat.
Picture (courtesy HRCBM-Dhaka): Prof. Sarbajit Kumar Chakrabarty showing the bullet wounds on his chest to HRCBM representatives. Prof. Chakrabarty was attacked by Islamic religious fundamentalists on March 6th, 2003	Picture (courtesy HRCBM-Dhaka): HRCBM-Dhaka representatives are discussing the issues of minority safety with local officials in front of Police station. They went to visit SP and other police officers at the Police Station to ensure that police is doing their part to apprehend the culprits..

Thereafter we went to Khulna Medical College Hospital from Bagerhat at night and reached at Khulna at 8 p.m. as two victims of rape Sheuli Rani and Anima Rani were in said  Hospital for treatment. We met with both the victims and talked with them separately at 9 p.m. Ms.Anima told us that “ Would you please give me a job or let us allow to leave the country for ever ?” we also talked with the mother of Anima who was also in the Hospital with her daughter for treatment. Ms.Sheuli Rani was not in a position to talk to us as she seems to be insane due to unprecedented torture upon her body and mind. We also came to know that the condition of wife of Tapan was critical as she delivered a stillborn baby only 10 days ago. The rapist left her bleeding profusely. We found saline water was pushed on them till our return to Dhaka. We also asked the doctors on duty and nurses of Medical college Hospital at Khulna whether the victims at the time of admission were senseless and till now they are staying in a very unhygienic and unprotected place and we saw no police on duty as the terrorists can enter into the cabin and endanger their lives. I also talked with Mr.Ashraful Huda, Additional  Inspector-General of Police(CID),Dhaka for their protection in the Hospital as the matter is under thorough investigation by C.I.D. Mr.Huda told me in reply that as the D.I.G. of Police, Khulna Range is there and  he may be contacted for their protection. But it is strange that in spite of the heinous   incident like this why the police is not protecting the victims in such a unprotected Hospital.We found no initiative taken on the part of the authorities to safeguard life, property and prestige of minority victims in Bagerhat. ..more.......

Note: This investigative report is prepared by HRCBM-Dhaka, Bangladesh.