Dhaka, Sep 26 (IANS) As Bangladesh’s deteriorating law-and-order situation continues to fuel concern, a series of killings, disappearances and sexual abuse of children has deepened fears among parents about the safety of their children in the country, a report has stated.
“In Bangladesh, the moment a child walks out the front door can mark the beginning of a mother’s longest wait of the day. Until the child returns, a delayed phone call, an unanswered message, or footsteps that do not arrive on time can turn an ordinary afternoon into hours of uncertainty. For many parents, the journey between home and school has become a daily vigil, measured by the hour a child is expected to return — and the anxiety that follows when that moment passes,” a report in ‘The Border Lens’ detailed.
On September 18, 13-year-old Ishiat Shahriar Opratim left his home in Cumilla district, telling his mother, Nahida Begum, an associate professor at Comilla University, that he was heading out with friends to take photographs using her iPhone. He did not return. Almost 24 hours later, his body was recovered from the Sananda hillocks near the university, according to police and Bangladeshi media reports.
“I have only one son. What do I have to live for now? They could have taken the iPhone, but why did they kill my son? I came to work in Cumilla — is this my crime? Why was my son killed? I want the answer to this. How will I live now?” The Border Lens quoted Nahida as saying.
In a separate incident on the same day, three children from the same family, aged 10, seven, and two, were killed in Tahirpur upazila in Sunamganj district.
“Under Tarique Rahman, the government cannot ensure the safety of our beloved children. There is no law and order. Almost every other day, we are losing our precious children. This is heartbreaking. A country cannot go on like this,” a mother from Dhaka told The Border Lens on condition of anonymity.
Additionally, Sheuli Akter, a mother of a nine-year-old in Dhaka, said, “We are passing a hard time in Bangladesh now. Our children are not safe in their own country. All the time we are very anxious about our children’s safety.”
The report highlighted a troubling pattern involving residential religious institutions, which have been linked to several recent allegations of sexual abuse of boys in Bangladesh.
In Savar, Dhaka, a seven-year-old boy was allegedly sexually abused repeatedly for nearly six months at the madrasa where he lived and studied. His father subsequently registered a case against 10 people from the institution, including multiple teachers, it noted.
“The case statement alleged that the child first experienced abuse within weeks of enrolling and later sought help from a teacher, who allegedly abused him and threatened him with expulsion if he told his parents,” the report mentioned.
In its recent findings, Dhaka-based rights organisation Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK) recorded that as many as 155 children were killed between January and August this year in incidents involving murder following disappearance, rape, physical abuse and other forms of violence across Bangladesh.
The killings of children have unfolded alongside a continuing crisis of children going missing nationwide. Various media reported that over 15,000 children disappeared nationwide between January and July this year, highlighting the scale of the problem, Bangladesh’s leading newspaper The Daily Star reported.
Earlier this month, Bangladeshi police headquarters, in a press release, said that 15,717 children had gone missing during the first seven months of the year. Although 13,679 were traced, 2,038 remained missing, accounting for nearly 13 per cent of the total.
–IANS
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