Dhaka, July 7: In a span of nine days, 24 women, including an infant, were raped in Muhammad Yunus-led Bangladesh, according to the Awami League, which added that over 281,000 complaints have piled up and are still “unresolved.”

“In just 9 days, 24 women were raped. Among them, a child was raped by a 60-year-old man. These numbers are horrifying, but each number hides a lifetime of pain and trauma,” said the Awami League on Sunday.

According to the former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s party, “Rapists aren’t strangers — they’re police officers, teachers, politicians, and many roam free, protected by silence and a broken system.”

“Under Yunus’s illegal rule, Bangladesh is no longer a safe place for women. Every day, women are raped while the state stays silent. When survivors seek justice, they’re humiliated again — by police questions, invasive medical exams, courtroom cruelty, and society’s blaming gaze. In court, survivors are shamed for their clothes and character. Cases drag on for years. Social media adds more wounds, as victims’ images spread while rapists remain anonymous,” the Awami League stated.

“Laws alone won’t save us. We need a social revolution. Women must rise, confront, and demand justice. Men must stand with them. Silence is complicity. As long as leaders like Muhammad Yunus remain in power, nothing will change,” it added.

Calling a Bangladeshi woman’s body “a battlefield,” the party said, “Until the state takes responsibility, this bleeding won’t stop. We must challenge the state — or women will never be safe.”

Recently, the Awami League revealed the statistics mentioned that only in June, 63 incidents of rapes were reported, including 17 gang rapes, seven survivors were women/girls with disabilities, while 19 children and 23 teenage girls were raped.

Additionally, 39 cases of sexual harassment and 51 physical assaults on women were reported.

“These aren’t just statistics. They are devastating proof that women and girls in Bangladesh live in constant fear,” said the party.

Last week, addressing a press briefing in Dhaka, Sharmeen S. Murshid, Social Welfare and Women and Children Affairs Advisor of Bangladesh under the interim government, described the rising incidents of violence against women and children in the country as a “pandemic-level crisis.”

The advisor revealed that over the past 10–11 months, 281,000 complaints have been received by the ministry’s toll-free hotline.

“Violence is being committed in families, workplaces, public spaces, and online. Despite Section 14 of the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act and the High Court’s directives, victims’ photos are still being published in the media,” Bangladesh’s leading daily, The Dhaka Tribune, quoted the Advisor as saying.

“Though I am a human rights activist, I now support the death penalty for these criminals. The level of violence has exceeded our tolerance,” Sharmeen added.

Bangladesh has been gripped by protest movements, a deteriorating law and order situation and an increasing number of incidents of violence against women since the ouster of Hasina in August 2024, when the Yunus-led administration took the helm.

New Delhi, July 5: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday arrested two human traffickers from different locations in Himachal Pradesh and Delhi. The duo, accused of sending more than 100 youths to the United States using the notorious ‘donkey route’ were nabbed after extensive searches.

The accused were identified as Sunny Donker, a resident of Kangra (Himachal Pradesh) and Shubham Sandhal, a resident of Punjab who was currently residing in the national Capital.

Both are said to be associates of Gagandeep Singh alias Goldy, arrested earlier in March.

Gagandeep was arrested over a victim’s complaint who was illegally trafficked to the US using the infamous ‘donkey route’ and was deported back to India in February, this year.

Goldy, a resident of Tilak Nagar in Delhi, was subsequently chargesheeted by the NIA.

As per the findings of the law enforcement agency, Gagandeep Singh used to take around Rs 45 lakh from each victim on the pretext of sending them to US on a valid visa.

He would then illegally send them on an arduous journey via multiple countries, including Spain, El-Salvador, Guatemala and Mexico.

He had sent more than 100 victims illegally to the US, in this manner before being arrested.

Sunny was the main associate of Gagandeep Singh and played a key role in facilitating the journey of the victims on the ‘donkey route’.

Also, the victims were physically and mentally harassed on the way by agents to extract more money.

Shubham Sandhal operated as key hawala conduit, who transferred funds to agents in Latin America. Gagandeep used him to transfer part of the money taken from the victims to the agents based in Latin America.

The NIA, took over the case from Punjab Police in March this year. As the investigation proceeds, it continues to unravel dark secrets of the human trafficking racket.

Kolkata, July 4: Monojit Mishra, one of the three accused and reportedly the main architect in the law college student gang-rape case, made as many as 16 calls in three hours after the crime incident took place on the evening of June 25.

Those call details are currently being examined by the investigating sleuths, and at the same time, the process of interrogation of those with whom Mishra conversed during that period has started.

The tower locations of the mobile phones of the three accused, namely Mishra, Jaib Ahmed and Pramit Mukhopadhyay, during that period are being tracked by the investigating officials to have an idea of the places they went to immediately after the crime.

Sources said that one of the calls that Mishra made from his mobile phone during that period was to a member of the governing body of the same college. Although the governing body member concerned has already been questioned by the investigating officials, the latter are not willing to disclose anything on the interrogation findings for the sake of the investigation.

This week, the investigation into the case was handed over to the Detective Department of the city police, which has started the probe process by adding new sections against the three prime accused persons.

Before Detective Department took over the charge of the investigation, the three accused persons were charged under sections on rape. However, with the Detective Department taking over the investigation sections relating to abduction and causing injuries with weapons were also slapped on the three.

On Friday morning, around 3 a.m., the sleuths of the detective department reached the campus of the law college in Kolkata along with the three accused for reenactment of the incident.

Sources said that the findings of the reenactment process will be cross-checked with the statement given by the victim soon after the event of sexual harassment took place last week. Earlier, a member of the special investigation team, which was initially investigating the matter, had gone to the college campus with the victim for reenactment purposes.

The woman, a student of the South Calcutta Law College, was allegedly raped by two senior students and an alumnus of the institute in the guard’s room on June 25. Apart from the three, the college guard has been arrested in the case so far.