Helpless gang-rape victim says she will torch herself in public

Helpless under constant threat of rapists and separated from her family, a gang-rape victim today cried out for relief and said she will pour kerosene and light herself in public otherwise.

She was gang-raped in Gazipur, allegedly by ruling party activists, in February and has been living in isolation – far from home and her family under threat to withdraw a name.

“The police and they (the rapists) are threatening me to withdraw the name of Rakib Sarker,” the 28-year-old woman, clad in clothes covering her from head to toe, said at a press briefing today.

Daughter of a freedom fighter, she filed a case against eight people, including Rakib Sarker, a former member of Bangladesh Chhatra League’s central committee, a local leader.

“They have threatened me, they said they would do the same (rape) to my elder daughter if I don’t negotiate out of this,” the woman said. “Now, my daughter has stopped going to school.”

“If this continues, the only way I see to end this is to walk out to the streets, pour kerosene all over and light myself on fire in front of everyone,” she pleaded seeking an end to it.

The press briefing was arranged at Crime Reporters’ Association of Bangladesh (CRAB).

Source: thedailystar