A resident of Poradanga village, about 50-year old Hindu woman Basana Mallik was a member of Maijpara Union Parishad (UP) ward numbers 1, 2, and 3 from the Reserved Women’s quota.

In the afternoon of Tuesday, December 24, 2024, Basana was returning home after distributing subsidized goods of the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh. One Mr. Rajibul called her on the phone asking her to meet with him to collect the money that he owed to her from Daulatpur village. On her way her home, she went there to get the money. Mr. Usman Miah and Rajibul along with a few other Muslim men named Faruk, Chanchal, and Shafiqul gang-raped her and video recorded inside the house owned by one Mr. Moktar Molla.  They also demanded 2 lakh Taka cash from her if to avoid the circulation of the video records to public. The men poured poison in her mouth.

On returning home, victim Basana Mallik did not tell anything about the incident out of fear. The next morning Thursday December 25, the family took her to Jassore General Hospital as she fell ill. The hospital admitted her. She while at hospital told the details of the torture on her and the names of the criminals to the family. She died while undergoing treatment at the hospital on Thursday night, December 26, 2024.

On completion of the post-mortem, the hospital released the dead body to the family in the evening of Friday, December 26, 2024. The Daily Start newspaper reported that the Resident Medical Officer Bazlur Rashid said it seemed from the injuries that the woman was gang-raped. “We found poison in her stomach. More details will be known after we get the viscera report,” he said.

Human Rights Congress for Bangladesh demands immediate arrest and exemplary punishment of the murderers.

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