March 7 sexual assault: Investigation sees no headway

Two weeks have elapsed since women and girls were reportedly harassed during a rally in Dhaka on March 7, there has been no visible progress in a case filed over the incident. Earlier, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said law enforcers collected CCTV clips from spots where women and girls had fallen prey to sexual harassment on that day, but no one has been identified as yet despites several complaints filed by some of the victims. Thousands of activists of the ruling Awami League headed for Suhrawardy Udyan in early hours of the day to join the rally over the historic March 7 Speech of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.   [caption id="attachment_254522" align="aligncenter" width="800"] The post of another victim Collected from Facebook[/caption]   A post by a teenage girl, who said she was sexually assaulted in the city’s Bangla Motor area by men heading to the rally, went viral on Facebook later in the day, triggering a firestorm. Several other women reported similar incidents and some of them took to the social media to share their experiences of harassment. According to media reports, women and girls were harassed in at least six different locations on that day. [caption id="attachment_254523" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Yet another post Collected from Facebook[/caption] Asked, a Detective Branch official preferring to be anonymous said: “As thousands of people joined the rally, it is very difficult for us to identify those who were involved in the crimes. “ He, however, added that they were trying to identify those involved. Rajib Al Masud, additional deputy commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, said they were  trying to collect more CCTV clips to identify and arrest the accused. This article was first published on banglatribune.com