Woman gang-raped by locals when visiting forest in Dinajpur with boyfriend

A woman was gang-raped reportedly by locals in a forest near the Ashura Beel in Dinajpur's Nawabganj upazila on Monday. 

The incident happened when she and her partner was accosted by five men who first physically assaulted them and then demanded they transfer money into their account through bKash, police said. 

Police arrested four people - Shahinur Islam, 30, Abdul Aziz alias Azim, 31, both of Shagunkhola village of the upazila; Shajedur Islam, 20, and Shaharul Islam, 21, both of Fatehpur Marash village of the upazila after a case was filed against five people under the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act by the woman's partner.

Another accused Rezwan, 20, of Shagunkhola village is currently on the run, said Nawabganj police station officer-in-charge (OC) Ashok Kumar Chouhan.

Bangladesh Mahila Parisad on July 15 published a report saying that in the first six months of the year 416 women were raped and 24 of them killed after rape. 

"The perpetrators found the couple in Ashura Beel and initially beat them up. Afterwards they demanded the woman's partner call someone over the phone who can pay his gang through mobile financial service bKash," said OC Ashok.

But instead the woman's partner called a Chhatra League leader in Nawabganj for help. Subsequently Shahinur's gang tied up the man while they gang-raped the woman in the forest, Ashok further said.

After the rape, members of the gang took the woman to Birampur road in Nawabganj, during which her partner managed to escape and informed the incident to the Ashura Beel Managing Comittee, who then informed the police, OC Ashok continued.

Police are trying to arrest the absconding suspect Rezwan and the woman was sent to Dinajpur M Abdur Rahim Medical College Hospital for forensic tests on Tuesday, OC Ashok added.