'Initiate medical test in upazilas to identify rapists'
Speakers at a workshop here stretched the need to setup well-equipped medical laboratories at upazila level to conduct medical test of rape victims to identify the rapists.
“If rape victims are not tested within 12 hours, the evidence will be damaged. In absence of testing facilities at the upazila level, most victims come to the district level hospital after the timeframe and rapists go unpunished due to lack of evidence,” they said at the workshop on Medical Examination of Rape Victims at Upazila Level.
Non-government organisation Rangpur-Dinajpur Rural Service (RDRS), in cooperation with Royal Netherlands Embassy arranged the daylong workshop at Dinajpur Press Club auditorium on Tuesday.
Speakers urged the government to introduce the process of conducting medical tests of rape victims at the upazila level.
They also emphasised DNA test of rape victims at the district level to help law enforcers easily identify the rapists and prevent filing false rape cases against honest people.
NGOs active role alongside government initiatives is needed to make people aware of the situation, they said.
Dinajpur Civil Surgeon Dr AGM Md Mizanur Rahman attended the workshop as chief guest while Md Akhter Hossain, assistant police superintendent of Dinajpur, Al Muntasir, programme coordinator of RDRS Bangladesh were present as special guests. RDRS Program Manager Monjusree Saha read out the keynote at the workshop.
Officers-in-charge and resident medical officers of all 13 police stations and upazila health complexes, advocates and journalists, spoke at the workshop.
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