Humanrights Monitoring Report January 2011

Murder: In January, a total number of 147 people were killed for various reasons such as terrorist attack, robbery, clashes for land and properties, dowry, rape, eve teasing, etc. Among these victims 103 men 38 women and 6 were children.

Violence against women:

Dowry: 7 women were killed in Janruary, and 5 women and 2 children were severely tortured for dowry in 12 different incidents. The deceased are Taposhi Rani Sarkar from Chandpur, Hasina and Maria Sultana Dipa from Gazipur, Rasheda Begum (16) from Dinajpur, Chaina Begum (14) from Narail, Salma Khatun (19) from Shirajganj and Rozina (20) from Pirojpur. Beside this, Sonia Akhter (18, Dhaka), Sharmin Akhter (18, Madaripur), Shilpi Begum and her daughter Urmee (17 months, Pirojpur), Moushumi (21) and her daughter Lamia (2) from Narayanganj and Rahima Akhter have been seriously injured over dowry.

Rape: In January, 8 women were raped and among them 2 were killed. The deceased are Tania (18, Narayanganj) and an adolescent house wife from Maulavibazar. The other victims are from Barishal, Narayanganj, Faridpur, Chittagong, Manikganj and Jhalokathi.

Eve Teasing: In January, 30 incidents of Eve Teasing occurred in the whole country. A cousin of a college girl Babul Akhter (42) was killed as he protested the stalkers at Naogaon. Beside this 4 guardians and teachers were physically assaulted for protesting stalking in different areas. A stalker has broken a leg of a college girl Amena Akhter at Madaripur. At Barguna, A stalker named Shah Jalal tried to cut the tongue of a house wife (20) as she denied his proposal.

Suicide: In January, 19 people in total committed suicide for various reasons such as mental pressure, eve teasing, rape, dowry and family feuds. Among them 16 were women and 3 were men. The places where these incidents occurred are Dhaka, Narshingdi, Jessore, Moulavibazar and Madaripur. Mukti Rani Mondol from Faridpur committed suicide for being raped. Tumpa Akhter (16) from Rangpur and Hafsa Akhter Dipu (15) from Netrokona committed suicide a result of stalking.

Violence against the journalists: In January, there were attacks on 5 journalists in 4 different incidents. Forhad Khan (60), the Senior Sub Editor of The Daily Janata, was murdered along with his wife in their own house at New Paltan in Dhaka. The cause of the murder and the murderer is still unidentified. The AL cadres injured Ali Ahsan Habib, the Thakurgaon correspondent of The Daily Kaler Kantha in Collegepara, Thakurgaon in the time of a clash. In Dhaka, at the trade fair, the worker of New Hajir Biriani assaulted Shibli Choudhury Kayes and Anwar Hossen Shobdo, the journalists of Digonto TV as they tried to investigate the poor quality food of that shop. 6 people were arrested over this incident. Hedayet Hossen, Reporter of Islamic TV was arrested and harassed by the police as protested the corruption of the police. He was freed later.