Blaming the media for exaggerating the incidents, police yesterday claimed the alleged sexual assault on several women on the DU campus on Bangla new year’s day was nothing big.
A spokesperson of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) claimed they had analysed the CCTV footage from the day, and had only found evidence of minor sexual abuse; there was no major incident of tearing apart women’s dresses.
However, in a major development last night, authorities closed the police officer who allegedly freed one of the assaulters caught and handed over to him by a mob.
Sources said the order for closing Hasan Abu Sayeed, sub-inspector of Shahbagh police station, came around 9pm yesterday.
When contacted around 9:30pm, Abdul Baten, deputy commissioner (DC) of DMP’s Ramna zone, however said the news of the closure was “still” not correct.
Snap taken from the footage of police’s CCTV camera installed near the TSC roundabout show how a woman was surrounded and assaulted by alleged attackers on Bangla new year’s day
Video footage aired by television channels, photographs taken by journalists and individuals at the spot, witness statements, and the Facebook statuses of at least three victims over the last four days have all given vivid descriptions of a serious sexual assault on several women on that day.
But Monirul Islam, joint commissioner and spokesperson of DMP, told reporters in his office yesterday that some of the footage and still photographs published in mainstream media and on social media were either fake, photoshoped, or from past incidents.
He also said controlling law and order during such massive gatherings on the university campus is never easy. “We have asked the Dhaka University authorities to provide some volunteers the next time there is such a big programme.”
Over the last four days, social media, especially Facebook, have been flooded with statuses and comments condemning the assault on women.
Hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children throng the Dhaka University campus every year to take part in the traditional Pohela Boishakh celebrations.
According to witnesses, during this year’s celebrations on April 14, several groups of 15-20 young men, taking advantage of the heavy crowd, sexually assaulted at least 20 women at different points on the university campus.
These young men infiltrated into the heavy crowd flow, forced their way around a woman, surrounded her and sexually assaulted her, sometimes touching her private parts and pulling or even ripping her dress apart, witnesses said.
Not just women, children as young as 10-years-old were also reported to have been assaulted by these groups.
Snap taken from the footage of police’s CCTV camera installed near the TSC roundabout show how a woman was surrounded and assaulted by alleged attackers on Bangla new year’s day
Many witnesses have come down hard on law enforcers, especially those on duty when the assaults took place, for being reluctant in taking action.
Seeking anonymity, a witness said he had seen a group of hoodlums sexually assault a woman and beat up her husband in the presence of police.
“We went to the policemen on duty near the spot where the incident took place and sought help. But the cop was reluctant and told us: ‘Oil your own machines and get out of here’,” the witness said.
Another witness Liton Nandi, president of leftist student organisation Bangladesh Chhatra Union’s DU unit, was right there and tried to save some of the women.
When contacted, Liton told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday that DMP’s statements were reflections of “sheer irresponsibility” and accused police of trying to lead the investigation astray.
“Attackers completely ripped apart some women’s saree and salwar kameez and molested them in the middle of the heavy crowd near the Raju sculpture at the TSC roundabout. We later rescued them and took them to the Rokeya Hall,” he said.
Bangladesh Chhatra Union, student body of the Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB), has been leading the protests. They have announced a countrywide protest programme for tomorrow.
More than 20,000 people from home and abroad have expressed solidarity on the protest programme’s Facebook event page.
In the same page, the student group alleged the police had asked them to not stage the protest.
The High Court on Thursday directed the inspector general of police and the DU vice-chancellor to investigate the allegations and submit separate reports in a month.
DMP yesterday formed two separate probe committees headed by two additional deputy commissioners of police.
Promising to keep identities secret, DMP has also requested victims and witnesses to contact them and give actual narrations of the incidents.
ADC Jahangir, chief of one of the committees, said yesterday they had identified and singled out the photographs of four to five suspects by analysing CCTV footage. They are also planning to publish those photographs through the mainstream and social media soon.
Dhaka University authorities have also formed a seven-member committee, headed by Pro-VC Prof Nasrin Ahmed, to look into the incident. This committee has been asked to submit a report by April 23.