3 more youth arrested in Cox’s Bazar gang rape case

Three more youth have been arrested in connection with a case filed over the gang rape of a female tourist in Cox's Bazar.

They were arrested during an overnight raid on Saturday, said Cox's Bazar Tourist Police SP Md Jillur Rahman, confirming the news to The Business Standard.

The arrestees are Rezaul Karim, 25, Mamunur Rashid, 28, and Mehedi Hasan, 21.

Earlier, Zia Guest Inn hotel's Manager Riaz Uddin Soton was arrested in the same case. A Cox's Bazar court placed him on a four-day remand yesterday.

However, the prime accused – Ashiqul Islam Ashiq, Israfil Huda Joy and Mehedi Hasan Babu – are still on the run.

On 23 December, RAB-15 rescued a female tourist who was reportedly gang-raped by local youths in Cox's Bazar as they held her husband and their eight-year-old child hostage.

According to the victim, the family of three went to Cox's Bazar on Wednesday morning from Jatrabari of Dhaka. They booked a room in the hotel at the Holiday intersection. Her husband accidentally stumbled upon a stranger while strolling at Laboni Point in Kolatoli beach later in the day. This led to an altercation following which her husband and child were picked up in a CNG-run autorickshaw from in front of the tourist golf course in the evening.

At that time, three youths picked the victim up in another CNG autorickshaw and raped her behind a shacky tea stall across the golf course.

Later, they took her to Zia Guest Inn and raped her again after consuming yaba pills there.

The perpetrators then locked the room and fled the scene after threatening to kill her husband and child if the incident gets reported.

The victim was quick to seek help through the window of the room on the third floor of the inn and managed to contact the RAB who then came and rescued her at 1:30am.

Her husband and children were rescued from the tourist golf course area.

The victims' husband filed a case around 8pm on Thursday with Cox's Bazar Model police station, 12 hours after the incident, accusing seven people. 

Following the filing of the case, RAB arrested the hotel manager Riaz Uddin, 33, and identified three accused youths from CCTV footage.

In the case, four names were mentioned while three were unknown. The four are Ashiqul Islam, 23, son of late Abdul Karim of Baharchhara, Israfil Huda Joy, son of Shafiq Prakash Gunda, and Mehedi Hasan, son of Abul Kashem.

Of them, Ashiqul is a notorious criminal in the area against whom there are 16 cases including for murder, drugs, rape, hijacking and women repression. Ashiq has just been released from jail on 7 December.

Locals alleged that all of the three are accomplices of district Chhatra League president Saddam. Pictures of the accused with Cox's Bazar district Chhatra League president Saddam went viral on social media after the incident.

But Saddam denied any involvement with them, saying many come to take photos with him.