Rape inside campus: JU students, teachers stage protests demanding justice

The students of Jahangirnagar University (JU) have led several protests and formed human chains after a woman was raped inside the campus by a university-unit Chhara League leader and an outsider. 

Several teachers of the university also took part in the protests demanding punishment of the accused on Sunday. 

Soon after the rape allegations surfaced on Saturday night, students gathered in front of the Mir Mosharraf Hossain Hall, where the woman’s husband was locked up during the violation, and started protesting. 

Currently, a group of students and teachers have taken position in front of the new administrative building of the university.

On the other hand, another group of teachers and students are talking to the Vice Chancellor Prof Md Nurul demanding the trial of the rape accused along with the expulsion of the non-students from the residential halls.

Students and teachers of Jahangirnagar University (JU) stage a protest demanding justice over a rape that took place inside the campus on Sunday, February 4, 2024. Photo: Dhaka Tribune

Ashulia police station at around 3am on Sunday detained four people, including Mostafizur, over the incident.

The other detainees are Hasanuzzaman from the 45th batch of the International Relations Department of the university, Sagor Siddiqui from the 46th batch and Sabbir Hossen from the 47th batch of the Botany Department. 

The police said that the accused have been sent to the court seeking a seven-day remand.

The rape survivor has been sent to the One Stop Crisis Centre of Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DHMCH) for medical examination.
 
Dhaka Additional Superintendent of Police (Crime and Ops and Traffic North Division) Md Abdullahil Kafi told Dhaka Tribune that they are now trying to detain two absconding accused Mamun and Murad.
 

Mostafizur Rahman, a student of the 45th batch of the International Relations Department of the university, and a man named Mamun, 45 have been accused of raping a woman after locking her husband at the university’s Mir Mosharraf Hossain Hall.

The woman was violated in the adjacent area of the hall at around 9pm on Saturday.

Mostafizur is a resident student of the Mir Mosharraf Hossain Hall. He is the international affairs secretary of the university unit Chhatra League. While Mamun used to live with the couple in a rented house.

They were detained as they were seen assisting the accused and helping them escape from the campus in a CCTV footage. 

Our Savar correspondent Ariful Islam Sabbir contributed to this report