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Take measures to prevent rape
PM asks admin officials to create public awareness
Unb, Dhaka
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday asked the administration to take extensive measures against rape and raise public awareness against such incidents in society.
“We will have to take extensive measures to resist such rape incidents. And after all, we need to create public awareness,” she said.
The PM was virtually addressing the concluding ceremony of the 70th Foundation Training Course for fresh cadre service officers. She joined the programme from the Gono Bhaban through a video conference.
The participants were connected from Bangladesh Public Administration Training Centre (BPATC) at Savar and the offices of seven divisional commissioners.
Hasina said the government has amended the Women and Children Repression Prevention (Amendment) Act 2000 and an ordinance has already been promulgated to check rape incidents.
She said the rape incidents that take place these days are publicised widely. “The more it is publicised, the more its prevalence increases.”
Noting that people have the right to get justice, the PM said she knows the pain of not getting justice.
Hasina said she did not have access to justice after the assassination of her father, mother, brothers and others on August 15, 1975 as indemnity was given to the killers.
She said this culture (of injustice) should not remain in the country. “It has been possible to try the killers only because I could come to power.”
Hasina said the government wants people not to fall victims to any injustice.
Focusing on the government’s vision and plans to develop the country, she asked the new cadre officers to take Bangladesh forward being imbued with the spirit of the Liberation War.
She said as the government wants to make Bangladesh a developed country by 2041, the young generation, including the trained officers who would be running the country till that time, should take the country forward in such a way that Bangladesh does not fall back any more.
The PM asked the new officers to work for the welfare of the people.
Hasina said the government wants to develop every village equipped with all civic amenities so that rural people get urban facilities.
She put emphasis on modern training for government employees so that they can cope with the pace of the world.
Public Administration Secretary Shaikh Yusuf Harun delivered the welcome speech, while BPATC Rector Md Rakib Hossain, on behalf of the PM, distributed certificates among the trained officers.
Cadre officers Monia Sirat and Mehedi Hasan Kawsar, on behalf of 663 participants of the six-month foundation training course, spoke at the function.

Death penalty
FROM PAGE 1
It marked the first conviction since the government this week introduced the death penalty for rape.
Gang-rape already carried the death sentence, but rape by a single offender had previously been punishable only by life imprisonment.
Bachelet cited the law change in Bangladesh, but also calls in a number of other countries to impose the death penalty for rape.
She highlighted calls in Pakistan for public hanging and castration of rapists, and a law introduced in the northwestern Nigerian state of Kaduna last month imposing surgical castration followed by execution in rape cases where the victim is under 14.
“The main argument being made for the death penalty is for it to deter rape – but in fact there is no evidence that the death penalty deters crime more than other forms of punishment,” Bachelet said.
“Evidence shows that the certainty of punishment, rather than its severity, deters crime.”
She stressed that in most countries, “the key problem is that victims of sexual violence do not have access to justice in the first place.”
This was due to a range of factors, including “stigma, fear of reprisals, entrenched gender stereotypes and power imbalances,” she said, stressing that handing the death penalty to perpetrators would not remove those barriers.