Rafiul Islam

The number of rape victims in Bangladesh has doubled in 2019 than that of the previous year, said Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK) yesterday.

A total of 1,413 women were either gang-raped or subjected to rape last year. Of them, 76 were killed after rape and 10 others died by suicide, ASK said in its annual report.

The report was made based on different media reports and was released at a programme in Dhaka’s Jatiya Press Club.

According to the report, the number of rape victims was 732 in 2018 and 818 in 2017.

The report shows an alarming overall state of the country’s human rights situation though there was development in women’s participation in economy, political empowerment, education and health.

ASK said the actual number of rape victims are much higher as many victims kept mum and did not report the abuses.

Incidents of killing in the borders by Indian Border Security Force has tripled last year. It was 43 in 2019 whereas it was 14 in 2018, the report said.

Besides, extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and violence against women and children persisted throughout last year, according to the report.

The Daily Star analysed ASK’s reports of the previous years and found that the rights body was advocating for improvement of the human rights situation coming up with almost similar findings every year.

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