In May 1986, Bangladesh army personnel gang raped Mrs. Subodhini Tripura (25) wife of Mr. Tripura of Rambabu Dheba, Matiranga and then attacked her with knife. She took refuge at Tripura state of India with her family. This photo was taken at refugee camp in Tripura, India.

Bengali settlers rape and murder an indigenous girl in Dighinala

On 28 July 2018, Muslim settlers raped and mudered a minor indigenous Tripura girl (10) at Tapan Karbari Para in Dighinala, Khagrachari district. Police recovered the dead body of the victim from Noimile area around 11 pm on Saturday 28 July. The deceased girl, 10-year-old Kirttika Tripura Purna, daughter of late Narottam Tripura was a fifth-grade student of Noimile Tripura Para Government Primary School.

On the day of incident, Kirtika Tripura Purna left her school to go home during the launch break of the school. At that time, all her family members were working in jhum fields and it is believed that the rape and murder occurred during this time.

However, when the daughter did not return home from school after the evening her mother, Onumoti Tripura started looking for her daughter. Moreover, the school authorities informed her mother that Kirttika Tripura never returned school after the afternoon break. Later, with the help of Dighinala Police, Kirttika’s dead body was found dumped in a bush within 150-feet of the victim’s residence at Tapan Karbari Para.

According to local witnesses, a truck was parked in front of her house with 3 or 4 Muslim settler glancing at her. The victim’s mother went to jhum cultivation and no one was at home during that time. The victim’s mother found her daughter missing after returning home from work in the evening. Then she started searching for her daughter. Later she spotted some bloods in the bush near their house. Later the victim’s dead body was found lying on the grass, with her clothes ripped and body all battered. The perpetrators raped her, slit her throat and vagina, stabbed in her arms, face and all over her body with knife and penetrated her anus with sticks.

Police Case:

On 29 July 2018, Onumoti Tripura, mother of the deceased lodged a complainant with Dighinala Police Station against some suspect people (accused of rape and murder) under the Women and Child Repression Prevention Act. The filing case number is 4. Dighinala Police have been arrested 3 suspects in connection with the rape and killing of Kirttika Tripura on 30 July 2018 from Boalkhali area of Dighinala. The detainees are:

1. Shah Alam (33), son of late Mohammad Mobarak
2. Nazrul Islam Bandari (32), son of Mohammad Jalal Uddin
3. Monir Hossain (38), son of Fazar Ali

However, the remaining perpetrators are still at large.

Autopsy:

After discovering the dead body of the victim, the police sent it to the Khagrachari Sadar Hospital for postmortem. The dead body was handed over to family members on 29 July Sunday morning after an autopsy at Khagrachhari Sadar Hospital. The hospital’s Resident Physician Dr. Noyonmoy Tripura said they had found sharp weapon wounds on different parts of Kirttika’s body.

Culture of impunity continue

In recent months, from January-June 2018, at least 18 human rights violations incident on indigenous women both in plain and CHT have been observed. A total of 23 indigenous women were subjected to the victims including killing, gang rape, rape, torture, sexual harassment in which, 2 were killed after rape and more 4 were killed, 2 was gang raped, 7 were raped, 5 were attempted to rape and 3 were sexually harassed and assaulted in Bandarban, Chittagong, Khagrachari, Mymensingh, Rangamati and Dhaka. In the month of May alone, two indigenous Tripura girls were brutally killed after rape in Sitakunda upazila of Chittagong district. Besides, two teenage Tripura girls in two separate incidents were also gang raped in Bandarban and Khagrachari in April and June respectively. The very heart-breaking incident – rape and sexual harassment of two Marma sisters from Bilaichari, Rangamati - was reported in January. They, along with their parents, are still kept confined with police security at Vedvedi area in Rangamati municipality since January 2018.

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