On August 12, a Hindu man named Neel Madhav Saha was attacked and stabbed after objecting to his daughter’s eve-teasing. The event occurred at Rajshahi’s Vishwa Vidyalaya train station in Bangladesh.
According to accounts, two males harassed a female (name withheld) on her way to her coaching center. Miraj (aka Irfan Khan) and Prince were named as the suspects. The victim is a Rajshahi Government Women’s College student.
Emon, a guy who intervened and assisted her in reaching the coaching center, rescued her. On the same evening, Miraj and Prince assaulted the victim’s 46-year-old father, Neel Madhav Saha.
He was brutally stabbed with a knife and hit on the head with a hammer at around 7 pm on August 12, following a heated argument with the duo. While speaking to the media, Saha said, “They used to harass my daughter. Emon is the friend of the accused Prince. When Emon tried to stop the accused, he was intimidated.”
He informed, “Prince told me that we will have to pay him every month if we wanted to live. Else, we will have you get our daughter married to him.” When the victim’s father confronted him about his objectionable remarks, he was stabbed
“Miraj hit on my head with a hammer. They held me by my vest and legs. They wanted to take my life,” the victim’s father narrated. He named Mamun, Farad, Reham, Akher, and Robin for carrying out a deadly assault on him.
Initial Police inaction
Aside from his wife’s necklace, the accused stole money from his pocket. He rushed to the nearest police station with blood seeping from his wounds. But it was all for naught. He was taken to a local hospital for prompt medical care.
They then directed him to the Motihar police stations. The officers declined to file an FIR, claiming that the case was under the jurisdiction of the Railway Police Force. Unfortunately, they, too, declined to entertain him.
The victim’s father criticized the hospital and police for being too slow to intervene. When Saha initially went to the Chandrima police station, the officers declined to record a complaint and instead advised him to get therapy.
The Railway police only initiated the complaint against the accused after he addressed the media on August 17. The Rapid Action Batallion (RAB) detained three persons in connection with the investigation on the same day. Miraj (23), Farhad (27), and Akher were among them (32).
Surprisingly, Miraj and Farhad are members of the Chhatra League, the Bangladesh Awami League’s student branch. They are also supporters of Ruhul Amin, the Vice-President of the Rajshahi Mahanagar Chhatra League.
“We are minorities and faced with all forms of coercion tactics. We will have to die or commit suicide or run to India. None has come forward to help us…We want justice. We want a free and fair rule of law. My daughter is not able to study. My wife is unable to restart her parlor,” he pleaded.
Nonetheless, the event occurred at a time when Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said that minorities in Bangladesh had the same rights as the Muslim majority. With Hindus in the country constantly targeted, Hasina’s anodyne proclamations appear to be nothing more than lip service intended at suppressing mounting animosity.
