Sunday, 18 May, 2008 (4th Jadish, 1415)
A picture of Miss Bituni (Ashru) De Silva (14) in her school uniform depicted in the Daily janakantha news publication.
Translated by Mr. Basu Bose
For Bituni (Ashru) De Silva, a Christian minority schoolgirl, being gang raped wasn’t enough; she had to be killed in the end.
The terrorists (*1) “Mehedi’ gang, broke into her room in the dark of night, held weapons against her face, raped her and then poured poison into her mouth.
Before raping Bituni, the same group of terrorists also, gang raped Sima,
Bituni was taken to the local hospital in a critical condition. However, the same group of rapists later traced her to the hospital bedroom, choked her, and made sure she never breathes again.
This bone-chilling incident took place in South Bhadarthi village, in Kaliganj thana, in the district of Ghazipur. On Saturday, James De Silva, father of Bituni, the murdered gang rape victim, disclosed the news at a press conference with Dhaka Reporters Unity. While speaking Bituni’s parents broke down completely.
Mr De Silva stated that these terrorists are so powerful that even five days after the incident, they are freely moving around in a heroic manner. A no arrests have been made so far; they have started intimidating Bituni’s family members. And because the family is afraid, he and his family members are hiding from these rapists and murderers.
Mr. De Silva read out a written statement at he press conference. Other family members present were wife, Sima; his second daughter Setu (11); and two sons Jay (7) and Arnab (3).
Mrs. De Silva, who was also gang raped, spoke in a broken voice- she said that the terrorists broke into their home on the night of April 30th. As she came out of her bedroom, they pressed a gun at her and grabbed her. And they took their turn in raping her in front of her daughter, Bitumen (an ‘A’ student at eight grade.0
After Bituni came forward to try to save her from further degradation, they took Mrs De Silva into the bathroom and kept her inside. And then they started raping her 14-year-old daughter. At one stage, they poured some poisonous liquid inside Bituni’s mouth, and, left her barely conscious body on the floor.
Mrs De Siva telephone her husband, James, who was in Dhaka, and informed him of what happened. Meanwhile, she had taken her gang rape victim daughter to the local hospital for treatment and care. Bituni started recovering at a slow pace. And was making good progress She was also got her speech back and begun speaking clearly up until 9 am.
The gang of rapists (Medic (240, Dulal (28), Russel (20) Sohail and Jessik) managed to arrive at the hospital and were found near Bituni. As the hospital staff had become aware of the gang rape incident, Mehedi and his gang used some pretext and persuaded Bituni’s mother (herself a gang rape victim of the same men) to go out to buy some essential medicine for Bituni. This gave them the chance to the gang for choking Bituni to death. When Bituni’s mother came back with the medicine, she found that Mehedi and his men sitting quietly and watching the unconscious body of Bituni on the hospital bed. The desperately helpless mother started frantically shaking Bitui’s body while these men quickly sneaked out of the room.
Following this horrific incident, Mrs De Silva made calls from a cell phone to inform the local news paper staff and the law enforcement authorities that Mehedis have killed Bituni by choking her to death in the hospital.
Mr James De Silva complained at the press conference that when he went to the police station to file charges, he found that Bhumulia U...C. Chairman, Mr Abu Bakar Banu, acting on behalf of the accused and pressuring him to drop the charges. As well, he was hurling profanities at Mr De Silva right inside the grounds of the police station.
Mr De Silva further complained that he found out that five days after the incident, the local police officer in charge, Mr Khandakar Sisthan, has made up a case by himself without any consent of the De Silvas. Mr Khandarkar has also entrusted himself with the responsibility of investigating the case.
In view of the above circumstances, James De Silva demands that:
Justice is done for the heinous crimes committed on his daughter;
The accused be arrested without delay; and a rapid trial held to serve exemplary punishment to those responsible for the crimes; and.
The self appointed local investigator is replaced.
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Note: (*1 Santrasis or terrorists in Bengali are local gangs normally from the majority community who can be armed & routinely terrorise the helpless minorities with looting, vandalism, assaults, rape, murder etc.)
