Several youths were assaulting a woman

A young entrepreneur, who witnessed the beastly assault on women at Dhaka University on Pahela Baishakh, yesterday gave a vivid account of how eight to 10 youths tore apart the sari of a woman.

Hasinur Rahman Rikto who came with his girlfriend to TSC area to join the cultural festival said some of the youths were touching the woman, in her late 20s, from behind.

When the man accompanying her, presumably her husband, protested, three to four youths started beating him, said Rikto, addressing a protest rally at TSC.

The rest of the group took the woman aside and started clawing at her sari. "Forty to 45 percent of her sari was ripped apart," he said, adding that her screams were drowned out by the loud honking of the vuvuzela, played by some others of the group.

"There were many witnesses, but to my dismay all pretended that nothing serious was happening there," Rikto added.

Fearing that the "beasts" might attack his girlfriend too, they quickly left the scene behind the Raju sculpture and saw five to six policemen were busy controlling traffic close-by.

"Reaching there, we saw four youths were informing the policemen of the incident and asking them to rescue the woman," he said.

"Seemingly irritated, one cop instead asked the youth 'what is your problem?'" he said. Disheartened, they went away.

Feeling insecure, Rikto and his girlfriend left for his Laxmi Bazar residence in Old Dhaka. 

"I was fuming inside because I could not do anything to rescue the woman," said Rikto, who has started a clothing business after graduating from Jagannath University recently.

He said as his shop was closed yesterday, he came to TSC, and seeing the protest rally, he felt that it was his moral duty to let people know what he saw on that day.

Earlier, five leaders and activists of Bangladesh Chhatra Union, which hosted the rally, gave vivid accounts of the sexual assaults on several women.

But mysteriously enough, police and DU authorities are yet to confirm the incidents.

Addressing the protest rally, Prof Anu Muhammad described the DU administration and the acting proctor as "accomplices" of the perpetrators.

He said Acting Proctor AM Amzad was found playing chess when Chhatra Union leaders went to inform him of the assault but later he denied such incidents to save the culprits.

He asked the DU's incumbent administration to step down.

Liton Nondi, president of DU unit of Chhatra Union who got his right hand broken while trying to stop the assaulters, threatened to continue protest until the proctor resigns.

Abdullah Al Kafee, Communist Party of Bangladesh-backed mayoral candidate in Dhaka, asked the DU VC to resign, as he stopped publication of a photo of the assault in the media.

University teachers, women rights activists, and cultural personalities also addressed the rally, participated by more than a thousand students and general people.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST) and Bangladesh Chhatra Federation issued separate statements yesterday, protesting sexual harassments at DU, Jahangirnagar University and Jagannath University.