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Two held over tourist gang rape in Cox’s Bazar


Published : 23 Dec 2021 10:32 PM | Updated : 23 Dec 2021 10:32 PM

A housewife has been gang-raped while visiting the coastal tourist city of Cox's Bazar on Thursday. RAB has rescued the victim who said that the accused persons threatened to kill her husband and child. 

The rape victim complained that she did not get any help by calling the national emergency number 999. The woman is currently undergoing treatment at a one-stop crisis center (OCC) under the supervision of the police. Meanwhile, RAB has identified two of the gang rapists after watching CCTV footage seized from the hotel where the victim was taken. 

Police and RAB have launched separate operations to identify the accused and arrest the accused. Meanwhile, RAB arrested the hotel manager Riaz Uddin Chhotan for harassment. However, the police say that it is not correct to call 999. 

In the meantime, police claimed that the victim had been to Cox's Bazar twice before in the last in 3 months and lodged a complaint with the police. The police feel that a comprehensive investigation is needed as there are many mysteries in this regard.

According to RAB, two persons were identified after watching the footage of the closed-circuit television (CCTV) camera of the hotel on a charge of gang-raping the woman who was visiting Cox's Bazar from Dhaka.

According to the RAB, the arrested youths are Ashiqul Islam and Abdul Jabbar Jaya of Baharchhara area of Cox's Bazar city. The identity of the other is not yet known.

According to RAB, Ashik was released from jail only four months ago. He is accused of multiple crimes including robbery and carrying illegal drugs. An official of Cox's Bazar Sadar Model Police Station said that last year some youths led by Ashik stabbed a young man and snatched everything. He was in jail in this case. He was seen with various political leaders after his release from jail four months ago.

Ashik works in the area dealing with illegal drugs and sex workers. Jaya is one of his collaborators.

Major Mehedi Hasan, CPC commander of Cox's Bazar RAB-15, said that he rescued the victim from Zia Guest Inn in Hotel-Motel Zone of Kalatali in Cox's Bazar at around 1.30 pm on Wednesday. The victim, a tourist, said she came to visit Cox's Bazar with her husband and children from Jatrabari in Dhaka on Wednesday morning. 

There, her husband got into a fight with unknown young men. Due to this, after the evening, some people took her 6-month-old child and her husband near the tourist golf course premises. He was later forcibly taken away in a CNG autorickshaw. 

The victim was then taken to a tea shop in the city and first raped there. Then she was taken to a hotel called Zia Guest Inn in the hotel-motel zone where she was gang-raped. 

Meanwhile, investigations are going on to unfold the incident and arrest other accused in the case.