October Sees 33 Child Rapes & 66 Inhuman Torture of Children In Madrasas || Saiful Baten Tito, Bangladesh

Translated by Riaz Osmani

In the month of October, we have learned from national and online newspapers in Bangladesh about 33 incidents of child rapes, attempts to rape, and physical torture in Qawmi Madrasas, other religious schools called Maktab, and in Mosques. There, we have seen between the dates of October 1, 2020 to October 31, 2020 that 33 children have been raped among whom 24 were boys and 9 were girls. One child was killed after being raped. Attempts to rape and other forms of sexual torture were conducted on 7 children. Qawmi Madrasas in Bangladesh are residential single-sex places of Islamic learning that follow the Deobandi model popular in the Indian Subcontinent.

Inhuman physical torture was inflicted upon 66 children. Most of the above incidents have taken place in the Chattogram and Sylhet regions. It should be mentioned that Chattogram Division (greater administrative area) and Sylhet Division are areas from where most people can be found employed abroad, to be religious and prone to criminality.

I learned about many types of child rapes while writing the book Bishfõra. I heard it all from the children themselves. But I never came across that a child was raped after giving the him or her a sleeping pill. I saw a news item of precisely that on October 6. This means that rapists are inventing new techniques of raping children.

October 20 saw a heart-breaking incident. In Burichong subdistrict of Cumilla, the chairman and teachers of a Madrasa punished 60 students by forcing them to stand upright on their hands for half an hour, for allegations of stealing chanachur (Bombay Mix). Twenty-five of those students became seriously ill because of this. A few vomited while others experienced bleeding from the nose and mouth. At one point, a few locals rushed to the place and surrounded it after hearing screaming from the children experiencing this kind of torture. Can you imagine? No one from the entire Madrasa committee to the teachers thought for a moment what kind of frightening injustice was being done to the 60 children! What kind of barbarism is this? They gave such a punishment that it caused bleeding from the nose and mouth. What was the crime? The authorities suspected that the 60 children together stole a packet of chanachur and ate it. The parents of these tortured children heard about the latter’s fate. They surrounded the Madrasa as well. Please note that most of these tortured students had parents who were able to stage a protest. But when a crime gets committed onto an individual child in this environment and seeks justice, he or she looks around and discovers that the person is completely alone. At the same time, the child’s relatives and Madrasa authorities consistently pressurize him or her not to take the matter too seriously. As a result, most of the incidents stay unknown to other people

A news item on October 21 made me think laterally. The news headlines stated that an Imam’s (one who leads Muslim prayers in Mosques) son was sodomized by a Madrasa Muhtamim (Principal). How strange! I used to know that crows do not feast on the meat of another crow. Now it seems that not only do they feast on that, but with great appetite. I don’t know if this question is a little extreme or not, but how safe is the Muhtamim’s own son from his father?

On October 21, I became startled by a Facebook status of an Assistant Police Superintendent (ASP) of Rangunia Circle whose name is Anwar Hossain Shamim. On his profile and verified page, he provided a lengthy narrative with a photo of himself with a rapist Hujur (Islamic teacher). The title of the status was “Humane Rapist”. Below is the entire Facebook post.

“Sir, they are very young. So, I always try so that they don’t feel too much pain. After all, I am their teacher, I feel bad if they start crying after feeling pain”. This was the narrative of a 35 years old teacher called Nasir Uddin, of a Madrasa in Chattogram. After regularly victimising countless children with his lust, he professed being very humane towards the latter, while responding to our questions after his arrest.

If you listen to the litany of allegations raised against Nasir, you may find his kind remark to be nothing other than a joke. Being in charge of a Madrasa dormitory, he was at liberty to instil fear in many boys and make them his bed mates. Any conscientious person will flinch at what transpired during the preliminary investigation.

He used to target mainly boys aged ten or younger to sodomize. If a child refused to respond positively to his advances, he would be beaten needlessly in order to make him acquiesce. Since most of the children there were orphans or from poor families, he would be left at the end of the day with no option but to say yes to the Hujur’s invitations. Nasir’s addition to boys reached such heights that after finding out about it, his wife left him with their own child of three years.

In addition to being “humane” to the boys he used to rape, he was also very disciplined. He never liked disorder at all. That is why he created a full routine of which of the boys would present himself when, in order to perform “services” to the master. This was just like the tyrannical lion of folklore who made a contract with the animals in his jungle for an individual one to come to him daily as food, so that he would leave the rest of them alone. This is how his reckless, perverted sexual life remained well hidden behind his teaching profession. The boys too tolerated everything in silence in order to avoid beatings and blackmailing.

But trouble started brewing for the teacher yesterday evening. After receiving a primary complaint from a parent, our detailed investigation revealed an unbelievable montage of sodomizer Nasir’s secret, perverted sex life. Then we officially booked him, and hypocrite Hujur Md. Nasir Uddin was arrested in a midnight raid.

However, he totally changed his tune after being arrested. He repeatedly claimed that he apparently never took anyone to bed by force and that the students willingly came to him for his company. This was despite the fact that we fully knew by then what was done, day after day, under what pretences, unto these helpless boys from poor families by this beast called Nasir.

The good news is that after sending him to Court this morning, Nasir testified under section 168 and admitted to the allegations of child sodomy as was brought against him. At the same time, four boys among all the victims were present at Court and described all the cruelty that was inflicted upon them. God willing, he will be given exemplary punishment.

This is a request to guardians, no matter if your child is a boy or girl, please keep his or her safety and wellbeing in mind. Don’t let your child be an unprotected victim of any person, be it a teacher, relative or a neighbour.

Author: Assistant Superintendent Of Police (ASP), Rangunia Circle, Chattogram District Police.

It should be noted here that a Madrasa rapist is never satisfied by raping one child. He tries to do this with all the students. He becomes a serial rapist. But we only get to know about it if he is ever caught, and then we all get riled up. But we never look before and after. ASP Anwar Shamim is undoubtably a responsible and talented officer. He was indeed able to unearth the full story.

Analysing this month’s news, I learned about a young student getting raped by an older one, and the young student getting killed by the rapist afterwards. Previously, I did not notice news items of older students raping younger ones. However, when I was personally collecting data before writing the Bishfõra book, some students told me that incidents of older students raping youngers ones take place the most in Madrasas, though those incidents never get exposed, no cases are filed with Court and so no body gets to know about them. Even if they become known amongst the students or the victim seeks justice, the teachers simply slap the rapist a few times and end it there. But please note the headlines dated October 25 which states: “Killing Of Madrasa Student Followed By Murder In the Capital”. The news item featured in the media only because of the murder, and especially since the boy’s diary was rescued which contained plenty of information that could not be hidden.

I will finish today’s article with a news item dated October 28. I know many people stumbled across an article in the daily newspaper Prothom Alo. That item too had a photo. We see up close that a young boy is trying to climb down an external toilet pipe. The real story was that the child was always in fear of inhuman torture and sodomy inside the Madrasa. But he had no one to tell. So, he risked his life by climbing down the pipe over five stories. He was only ten years old. Now imagine this ten years old boy’ face! You may feel some pain. But their parents feel no such pain. That is because Shafi Hujur in Bangladesh has exclaimed that a Hafez (one who has memorized the Quran) can take 10 people to heaven with him. Thus, a son must definitely take his parents to that heaven. People do all kinds of things for this purpose. It is not new to sacrifice one’s own child to satisfy Allah.

Madrasa Child Rape & Torture Report October 2020

(Prepared On the Basis of News Received From National Daily & Online Newspapers)

Report Prepared By: Saiful Baten Tito

Gratitude To: Mohiuddin Sharif

Date	Headlines	Newspaper	District	Gender	No. of Children	Type
October 1	Imam arrested in Sylhet for raping minor girl.	News24 Dot Com	Sylhet	Girl	01	Rape
October 2	Raping child after luring into Mosque. Madrasa teacher arrested.	Bangla Dot Com	Chattogram	Girl	01	Rape
October 2	Madrasa teacher arrested for raping young student.	Dhaka Tribune	Cox's Bazar	Girl	01	Rape
October 4	Student sodomized in Siddirganj, teacher arrested.	Bangladesh Pratidin	Narayanganj	Boy	02	Rape
October 5	Madrasa super flees after student rape becomes known.	Daily Samakal	Kushtia	Girl	01	Continuous Rape
October 6	Teacher used to sodomize student after feeding sleeping pill.	Bangla Tribune	Narayanganj	Boy	01	Continuous Rape
October 6	Two students of Hefjo division sodomized, Hujur arrested.	Daily Ittefaq	Feni	Boy	02	Continuous Rape
October 6	Teacher raped student after arriving at school in Sylhet to give religious lessons!	Bangladesh Pratidin	Sylhet	Boy	01	Rape
October 7	Madrasa teacher cuts children’s hair with blade!	Somoy News	Tangail	Boy	02	Physical Torture
October 8	Sexual harassment while teaching Arabic, Imam arrested.	Dhaka Tribune	Sylhet	Girl	01	Attempt To Rape
October 9	Madrasa minor student mercilessly tortured after tied to chain.	Daily Ittefaq	Pabna	Boy	01	Physical Torture
October 12	Madrasa student sodomized in Patia, teacher arrested.	Desh Rupantor	Chattogram	Boy	01	Rape
October 12	Attempt to sodomize minor Madrasa student, head teacher arrested.	Bangladesh Pratidin	Savar	Boy	01	Attempt To Rape
October 12	Madrasa teacher arrested after complaints of sodomizing student.	Daily Samakal	Chattogram	Boy	01	Rape
October 14	Madrasa student sodomized in Rangpur this time, teacher arrested.	Notun Somoy	Rangpur	Boy	01	Rape & Physical Torture
October 14	Madrasa teacher arrested after complaints of raping student.	Daily Samakal	Cumilla	Girl	01	Rape
October 16	Four children sexually harassed in Joypurhat, Madrasa teacher arrested.	Somoy News	Joypurhat	Boy	04	Sexual Harassment
October 16	Fifth grade student detained for two months and raped, teacher arrested.	Dhaka Tribune	Gazipur	Girl	01	Continuous Rape
October 19	Madrasa teacher flees after rape in Banshkhali.	BDNews24 Dot Com	Chattogram	Girl	01	Continuous Rape
October 20	25 children fall ill after torture by Madrasa teachers, for allegedly stealing chanachur.	Dhaka Tribune	Cumilla	Boy	60	Hospitalization after falling ill after Physical Torture.
October 21	Madrasa teacher had routine to sodomize students every night.	Bangla Tribune	Chattogram	Boy	At least 06	Rape
October 21	Two Madrasa teachers arrested for complaints of sexual torture of minor student.	Bangla Tribune	Chattogram	Girl	01	Rape
October 21	Madrasa Muhtamim rapes Imam’s son.	Daily Kalerkantho	Habiganj	Boy	01	Rape
October 21	“Sir they are very young, so I try not to hurt them too much”.	Daily Kalerkantho	Chattogram	Boy	At least 06	Rape
October 22	Two Madrasa teacher arrested for injuring a student by beatings.	Bangla Tribune	Chuadanga	Boy	01	Physical Torture
October 23	Attempt to rape student by strangling, Madrasa teacher expelled.	Somoy News	Dhaka	Boy	01	Attempt To Rape
October 24	Madrasa super in Boraigram arrested for complaints of rape.	Somoy News	Nator	Girl	01	Rape
October 25	Killing Of Madrasa Student Followed By Murder In the Capital.	DBC News	Dhaka	Boy	01	Rape & Murder
October 26	Two arrested for sodomizing minor student in Madrasa in Begumganj.	Somoy News	Noakhali	Boy	01	Rape
October 27	999 called to complain about sodomy, Madrasa teacher arrested.	Sarabangla Dot Net	Cox's Bazar	Boy	01	Rape
October 28	Child attempted to climb down pipe from top of five story building.	Prothom Alo	Narsingdi	Boy	01	Physical Torture
October 28	Madrasa student woken up and sodomized by teacher.	Daily Kalerkantho	Gazipur	Boy	01	Rape