Stalkers have been a constant plague to our society – harassing young girls and women everywhere and attacking anyone raising their own voice to protect their loved ones.
In many such cases, the violence of stalkers had resulted in deaths or injuries of family members of the harassed woman.
But in recent years, efforts from different quarters have reduced to some extent the number of concerned citizens being killed each year by stalkers and sex offenders.
Between 2010 and 2013, an average of 17 people were killed each year for protesting incidents of sexual harassment, according to figures from Ain O Salish Kendra (ASK).
But over the last two years, the average dropped to only eight fatalities per year.
Analysts say the sharp fall might be partially attributed to a strengthened enforcement of justice against stalkers.
According to ASK estimates, the past two years alone saw around 260 stalkers being handed jail sentences – ranging from a week to six months – for harassing girls and women on the street.
When justice is served swiftly, it sends a warning to other stalkers and makes them think twice before targeting someone, rights activists say.
Fast police response to reports of sexual harassment is also said to have saved many lives.
Nazrul Islam, assistant inspector general of police (media), said police all over the country have been instructed to prioritise all cases related to sexual harassment.
The chairman of Dhaka University’s criminology department, Prof Zia Rahman, suggested that emergency phone numbers could be used to accelerate the response time between an incident of sexual harassment and the time it takes for the police to reach the scene.
He, however, pointed out that most people have already lost faith in law enforcers after failing to get their support in cases of sexual harassment in the past.
To remedy this, the police need to become more people-friendly by reorganising the force, Prof Zia said.
The failure to offer continuing protection also weakens the public’s reliance on the police force and further endangers the families of the victims.
Several victims and their relatives told the Dhaka Tribune they could not depend on the police and had to arrange for their own protection after the culprits secured bail and started to threaten them for withdrawing cases.
Reason behind attacks
Looking at figures from Ain o Salish Kendra, men appear to be more vocal than women when it came to protesting sexual harassment. Of the 68 people who were killed between 2010 and 2013, 26 were women and 58 were male.
The number of the injured have also fallen in the past couple of years. Compared to the 1,896 concerned citizens who were injured for protesting sexual harassment between 2010 and 2013, only 476 people were attacked and hurt during the past two years.
Although the numbers have gone down, human rights organisations say the situation was far from a satisfactory level.
Since 2010, at least 52 girls were forced to stop going to school because of stalkers.
Specialists blamed the culture of impunity, lack of moral values and a faulty education system for the crisis.
Dr Mizanur Rahman, chairman of National Human Rights Commission, said stalkers become aggressive when they face resistance because their families had failed to instil any moral value in them.
The education system in our country only increases the burden on children and do not teach about morality, the NHRC chief added.
Ayesha Khanam, president of Bangladesh Mahila Parishad, also said the failure of families to teach morality to children is behind such attacks.