Brutal Gang Rape and Murder of minority Hindu family members traumatized the local Hindus of Bagherhat, Bangladesh?
An Investigative report from HRCBM
I along with Advocate Jagadish Chandra Sarkar, Prof. Ashoke Taru Saha of HRCBM, Dhaka and also two others from Hindu community visited the place of occurrence on 14th March, 2003 at Komarpur, Thakurbari, Bagerhat where Tapan Bhattacharjee was brutally killed and three women were gang-raped by terrorists on 9th March,2003 on the basis of horrific news published in different dailies in Bangladesh. We also got three more incident of repressions on Hindus ,one is in Sultanpur village another is in Fatepur village and another is in Bishnupur village within Bagerhat district after reaching at Bagerhat “Ramkrishna Mission?which was not published in the dailies.
Picture: Victim of brutality Mrs. Shewli Bhattacherjee (20) who is admitted to Khulna Medical Hospital signing sworn affidavits and other paper works allowing HRCBM to take drastic legal action against the miscreants.  Prof. Taru of HRCBM is seen in photograph taking statements of the victims while victim's mother sitting on the side.
We started for Bagerhat from Dhaka by bus on 13th of March,2003 at about 9 p.m. and reached at Bagerhat in the next morning on 14th March,2003 and met with the “Maharaj?of Ramkrishna Mission at Bagerhat who apprised us the overall situation of Bagerhat and before proceeding towards Komarpur,Thakurbari we talked with the Supdt.of Police, and Deputy Commissioner Bagerhat to know the situation. We went to Md.Ishaque Dudu @ (Dhuku) Officer-in-Charge of Bagerhat Sadar police station and recorded his statements. We requested the O.C. Bagerhat to co-operate us helping mete out justice to the victims. We also requested him to supply us copies of complaint filed by the victims and he gave us two copies of F.I.R.(First information report) filed by one Prof.Sarbajit Chakravorty of Sultanpur village who was attacked by some unknown terrorists and another from Md.Badsha Meah, S.I. of police, Bagerhat Sadar P.S. on behalf of?Deb Das Samaddar of?Fatepur village whose dwelling house was burnt by some terrorists
Picture: While Prof Taru of HRCBM gives assurance to the family of pursuing the legal action, other advocates of HRCBM is listening to the statements of victims.
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 14th 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 9th 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 :
Ms.Bakul Chakravorty wife of Sadhan Chakravorty of Komarpur, Bagerhat
Amal Krishna Dey son of Prafullah Kumar Dey of Komarpur Bagerhat
Mirza Manirul Islam son of late Abdul Ali of Kormarpur, Bagehat
Havilder No.68 Md. Abul Hossain
C/1026 Md. Amjad Hossain
C/943 Biswanath Halder
C/942 Md. Bazlur Rahaman
Ajit Kumar Basu, Businessman
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...................
