Mockery of Justice
Culprit at large as girl groans in pain
Physically assaulted by village arbitrators, an 11-year-old girl is groaning in pain at Bhanga upazila hospital bed.
Though the girl was a victim of harassment by two local youths at Ghaura village on September 11, the arbitrators accused her of sexually alluring one of the two and beat her severely.
Following a case filed by her father with Bhanga Police Station, accusing 10 people on September 12, police arrested seven of them the same day.
The arrestees are stalkers Iqbal Matabbar, 35 and Taher Matabbar, and arbitrators Rafiq Matabbar, 55, Yunus Matabbar, 50, Sharif Munshi, 30, Jalal Matabbar, 30, and Ershad Sheikh, 25.
Police quoted the victim's family as saying that Iqbal Matabbar had been stalking the girl, a class four student of a local primary school at Ghaura village, on her way to and from the school for over a month.
According to case statement, Iqbal and his accomplice Taher Matabbar tried to take the girl to a house beside a road while she was returning home from her relative's house at around 8:00am on September 11. As she cried for help, locals rescued her. Iqbal and Taher managed to flee the scene.
Hearing the news, Alamgir Matabbar, 50, former chairman of Ghaura union, called a salish (arbitration) at his house at Ghaura village at around 8:00pm on September 11. At the arbitration, Taher, one of the two youths and also an accused in the case, blamed the girl for the incident, saying that she talked to Iqbal over cellphone and requested him to come to the scene.
On Taher's statement, arbitrator Alamgir Matabbar and others accused the girl of sexually alluring Iqbal and beat her unconscious. Later she was admitted to Bhanga Upazila Health Complex, police quoting locals said.
Contacted, the officer-in-charge of Bhanga police station said the main arbitrator Alamgir Matabbar is still at large and they are trying to arrest him and two other accused in the case.
Hasina Mosharraf, a leader of Bangladesh Mohila Parishad Faridpur unit, demanded exemplary punishment to the accused and immediate arrest of the main arbitrator.
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