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The Awami League has deliberately carried out sexual assault on women protesters to humiliate women who participated in the July Uprising. Workers of the then ruling party have physically abused women, threatened to rape them and sexually harassed them.
These facts have emerged from the fact-finding report on human rights violations and torture related to the July Uprising released by the United Nations Human Rights Office on Wednesday (February 12).
The report says that in mid-July, the Awami League government began organizing armed activists. In the initial phase of suppressing the movement, Chhatra League activists attacked students with sticks, sharp weapons and in some cases firearms at the instigation of Awami League leaders.
To discourage women from participating in the movement, they were sexually assaulted and tried to humiliate them. Some of these women were illegally detained. Some of the women protesters were subjected to torture and inhumane treatment.
In addition, children were targeted. During the movement, the police and other security forces have committed extrajudicial killings, illegal arrests, detention in inhumane conditions, torture and deliberate mutilation of children.
In addition to physical attacks on women, sexual assault has also been regular. Women protesters have been repeatedly insulted using derogatory words.
The attackers were threatened with rape and sexual assault by members of the Awami League, Chhatra League and police.
The report describes an incident in which a group of men stopped a woman in Dhaka with bamboo sticks in their hands and asked if she was a protester. After searching the woman’s phone and bag, they found a Bangladeshi flag. They then began physically abusing her, pulling her hair, tearing her clothes and sexually harassing her. They also scratched her with their nails and sexually abused her.
The UN report also describes a Chhatra League attack on another female protester in Dhaka in July. Two Chhatra League activists threatened to rape the woman, her mother and all the female members of her family. They then made obscene comments and sexually harassed her. After this incident, the victim received more rape threats over the phone.
In Comilla, Chhatra League activists physically assaulted several women, two of whom were students. They detained the two students, sexually harassed them and then handed them over to the police.
