August 5, 2022
DHAKA – Hekmat Ali, the plaintiff of the case filed for robbery and gang-rape on a moving bus in Tangail, narrated the horrifying incident which occurred on the night of August 3.
Hekmat (28), a fruit trader from Salimpur village of Daulatpur in Kushtia, was traveling with his wife two children and mother-in-law on the Eagle Paribahan bus. He was going to Dhaka for a surgery at Dhaka Medical College Hospital and his relatives were supposed to receive him at Jatrabari in Dhaka.
“Our bus started its journey at 8:23pm on Tuesday (August 2, 2022). We sat in the middle. After a half-hour break at a restaurant in Sirajganj, 10-12 robbers posing as passengers got up on the bus from three points on the highway from 11:30pm to 12:00am.”
“Once we were on the Dhaka-Tangail highway around 1:00am, the robbers forcefully removed the driver from his seat by pointing sharp weapons at him and one of their men started driving the bus. They tore off clothes of the passengers on the moving bus and tied our hands and faces with those,” he added.
“At one stage, one of the robbers slapped me on the ear. They took away Tk 22,000 in cash, two mobile phones from me and gold ornaments of my wife and mother-in-law.
“I could tell they were torturing a woman sitting behind us but there was nothing I could do. I also heard screams of other women from the front seat but could not see anything in the dark. The robbers left us with the vehicle at Madhupur in Tangail around 3:30am,” he said.
“Locals came and rescued us. The police also came and took the bus staff first and then us to the police station.”
“Hearing everything there, the police asked us to file a case. I want to be a witness of the incident. But they asked me to be the plaintiff. Later I agreed,” he added.
“Police helped us get a BRTC bus at 9:00am to go home,” Hekmat added.