At least 120 journalists have been tortured, attacked, harassed and sued in the first six months of the year, when a local journalist died after being shot while covering a factional clash of the ruling Awami League in Noakhali, says rights group Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK).
Of the journalists, 18 were victimized by the law enforcers and at state-run organisations, 13 were injured in polls-centric violence and 18 others during demonstrations staged over Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Bangladesh in late March.
The rest were affected by local influential people, leaders and activists of the ruling party and criminals, ASK said in a statement published on Wednesday.
767 women, girls raped till June
The report said that no fewer than 767 women and girls were raped over the past six months ending on Wednesday. Shockingly, 156 of them were subjected to gang-rapes and 24 others were murdered after rape.
Five rape survivors committed suicide while 166 more rape attempts were reported.
Sixty-four women and girls faced sexual abuse over the period. Of them, seven took own lives.
Some 57 men were attacked for protesting sexual harassment and four of them were killed. Two women were murdered on the same grounds too.
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Violence against children
As many as 317 children were killed, 420 girls were raped, 51 boys were sodomized among 1,039 child victims of different types of violence towards them till June.
Fifty children committed suicide in the past six months. Also, 209 more children fell prey to domestic violence, torture of house tutors and employers, and also sexual harassment.
32 custodial deaths, extrajudicial killings
Gunfights with law enforcers left 20 dead between January and June, when nine others were killed in firing by different law enforcing agencies and three others died of torture while in custody. Additionally, 41 inmates died from illness in different jails or while being treated in hospitals.
Human rights situation at stake
The attacks on journalists, extrajudicial killings, custodial deaths, and violence against children and women have increased alarmingly in the last three months, especially after the nationwide lockdown from April 5, compared to the first three months of the year.
Analyzing the figures, the rights body said the country’s human rights situation deteriorated in the past six months, with a notable number of people dying at the hands of the law enforcers.
