By Rokeya Sumi 

Writer/Reporter 

Editor’s note: Sometimes news stories have the capacity to shock. Sometimes these stories are gut wrenching and disgusting. It is important we tell these stories because silence anywhere is silence everywhere, and it is within this silence that darkness grows. Discretion is therefore advised in the reading of this article. 

It was in the morning at 10 a.m. Everything was quite normal as it was every other day.  Ramesa, an eight-year-old girl, who was supposed to get ready for school, but suddenly she was nowhere to be found. Her mother was calling her name frequently, but there was no answer. She knocked on every door of the building, but the girl was not there. Everyone was looking for her when suddenly her mother noticed one shoe was outside the apartment. The mother realized something wrong had happened to her daughter. She and all other neighbors knocked on the door to open, but no one answered. Then they called the police and brook the door and saw blood on the floor and the criminal had fled already.  

Can you imagine what happened to that girl? Can you feel the moment of suspense and fear of the loss of her parents? Maybe reality is more pathetic and horrible than you might think. The parents of that girl found her at that apartment; they found her in a way that no parents would ever expect to see their kids. They found the girl’s body inside the criminal’s bed without her head. Her head was found inside the commode of their washroom.  

This is not a story. This is an incident which has taken place on 19^th of May, Tuesday in Dhaka City, the capital of Bangladesh. A 31-year-old man named Sohel Rana, who live next door to Ramesa’s apartment, killed her after he raped her, and his wife helped him to complete his inhuman act. Police arrested the accused and his wife on the same day.  

This is not only a story of child abuse and murder. On 13^th of May, four-year-old Lamia, 12^th of May Fahima, and many more are listed as a rape victims. According to Bangladesh Human Rights Organization, from January to the 20^th of May, 118 children were victims of rape, while 46 faced attempted to rape. At the same time at least 14 children were killed after they were raped and three were killed after the assailant failed in his attempt to rape them. However, at least two children attempted suicide after being subjected to rape. This is an image of the last six months, and the statistics of the last few years are not positive either. Data from the Human Rights Support Society (HRSS) Showed that from 2020 to 2024, at least 11,758 women and girls were victims of abuse and violence in Bangladesh. In 2025, it increased rapidly as around 749 women and girls were raped across the nation that year.  

Most of these cases are hanging on the decisions of the courts right now. Some of them had declared the death penalty for the criminal already, but all the ordered and law are ignored by the law enforcement and government. There are many rape cases that have been pending for 10 –15 years or more while victims are killed or socially isolated, but the criminals are still alive and freely breathing fresh air.  

The question is simple; why are there so depraved to do this crime? Why do they feel confident they will be rescued from a penalty? What motivates them to ignore the law?  The answer is only one failure of justice. From history they clearly understand that they do not have to face any punishment for what they did. Arresting accused, sending them in jail and asking for justice is a common scenario of the country right now. This is not just a crime; this is the proof of failure of governmental mechanisms and social accountability. From the past to present, no government took this issue seriously. They give commitments which have no action.  Social imbalance and discrimination are also a reason to make this crime normal where victims are treated as an accused, and a criminal is treated as a model of bravery.  

The masses of people are getting angry and feeling insecure right now. They are scared to send their kids anywhere. They believe this country is not safe for kids, especially for girls. After some days or weeks or months, everyone will forget about these children whose lives have ended before starting. People will get tired of asking for justice. They will remain only in the old newspaper’s files and in their parents’ hearts.