The Kandhamal gang rape case was a crime in Ranaghat, Nadia district, of the Indian state of West Bengal, in March 2015. A 71-year-old Syro-Malankara Catholic nun was gang raped by eight men who robbed a Catholic missionary school. Before the attack, school officials told police that they received death threats. [1] [2] [3] The rape was initially blamed on Hindu groups without any evidence by activists like Rana Ayyub and others. [4] However, On March 26, 2015, two Muslim men were arrested for the crimes. [5] [6] Two Bangladeshi nationals were detained on March 20, 2015, on suspicion of their involvement in the sexual assault of the 71-year-old nun at the Ranaghat convent school six days prior, police said. North Dinajpur Superintendent of Police S. W. Reza said that the two suspects — Mukul Alam (28) and Md Majid (29) — bore a striking resemblance to those caught on the CCTV camera at the Convent of Jesus and Mary school on March 14, one of them having 75 percent similarity. [7] [8]
Cardinal Baselios Cleemis met the victim in the hospital and told the press that "such inhuman acts should be stopped. We request the authorities to ensure that justice is done and made visible". [9]
Hinduism is the second largest religion in Bangladesh, as according to the 2022 Census of Bangladesh, approximately 13.1 million people responded that they were Hindus, constituting 7.95% out of the total population of 165.15 million people. In terms of population, Bangladesh is the third-largest Hindu populated country of the world, after the neighboring countries of India and Nepal. Hinduism is the second-largest religion in 61 out of 64 districts of Bangladesh, but there is no Hindu majority district in Bangladesh.
Ila Mitra was an Indian communist and peasants movement organizer of the Indian subcontinent, especially in East Bengal.
Ranaghat is a city and a municipality in Nadia district in the state of West Bengal, India. It is the headquarters of the Ranaghat subdivision. It is known for its handloom industry, various types of flowers and floriculture.
The Bangladesh Chhatra League, formerly known as the East Pakistan Student League, often simply called the Chhatra League, is a students' political organisation in Bangladesh, founded by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on 4 January 1948. BSL is the student wing of the Bangladesh Awami League.
The Jhabua nuns rape case refers to the gang rape of four nuns in the Jhabua district of Madhya Pradesh in India on September 23, 1998, by tribal men. Around 18-26 men barged their way into the Ashram where the nuns lived and ransacked the entire ashram and some of the men gang raped the nuns.
Richard Benkin is an American human rights activist, journalist, writer and lecturer. He has been a member of Folks Magazine's editorial board since August 2011.
The 1950 East Pakistan riots took place between Hindus and Muslims in East Pakistan, which resulted in several thousands of Hindus being killed in pogroms.
Rape is the fourth most common crime against women in India. According to the 2021 annual report of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), 31,677 rape cases were registered across the country, or an average of 86 cases daily, a rise from 2020 with 28,046 cases, while in 2019, 32,033 cases were registered. Of the total 31,677 rape cases, 28,147 of the rapes were committed by persons known to the victim. The share of victims who were minors or below 18 – the legal age of consent – stood at 10%.
The 2012 Delhi gang rape and murder, commonly known as the Nirbhaya case, involved a rape and fatal assault that occurred on 16 December 2012 in Munirka, a neighbourhood in South Delhi. The incident took place when Jyoti Singh, a 22-year-old physiotherapy intern, was beaten, gang-raped, and tortured in a private bus in which she was travelling with her male friend, Avnindra Pratap Pandey. There were six others in the bus, including the driver, all of whom raped the woman and beat her friend. She was rushed to Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi for treatment and, as the public outrage mounted, the government had her transferred to the prestigious Mount Elizabeth hospital, Singapore eleven days after the assault, where she succumbed to her injuries two days later. The incident generated widespread national and international coverage and was widely condemned, both in India and abroad. Subsequently, public protests against the state and central governments for failing to provide adequate security for women took place in New Delhi, where thousands of protesters clashed with security forces. Similar protests took place in major cities throughout the country. Since Indian law does not allow the press to publish a rape victim's name, the victim was widely known as Nirbhaya, meaning "fearless", and her struggle and death became a symbol of women's resistance to rape around the world.
Barun Biswas was a Bengali school teacher and a social activist in Sutia, West Bengal, India. In 2000, he co-founded "Sutia Gonodhorshon Pratibad Mancha", an organisation which protested against a local criminal gang, who were using gang-rape to terrorise the people of Sutia. Biswas was murdered on 5 July 2012. In 2013, a Bengali film Proloy was made, based on his life and fight.
The Rajshahi ethnic cleansing, marked by widespread ethnic violence and killings of minority Hindus, took place in April 1962 in Rajshahi and Pabna districts of East Pakistan. People and property were attacked. Around three hundred non-Muslims died in the massacre.
The 2015 Dimapur mob lynching was a case of mob lynching that took place in Dimapur, Nagaland, India, on 5 March 2015. A mob of about 7000–8000 people broke into a prison, dragged a man detained under accused of rape out of the Dimapur Central Jail, paraded him naked and beat him to death in a case of vigilante justice.
The 2008 Kandhamal violence refers to widespread violence against Christians purportedly incited by Hindutva organisations in the Kandhamal district of Orissa, India, in August 2008 after the murder of the Hindu monk Lakshmanananda Saraswati. According to government reports the violence resulted in at least 39 Christians killed. Reports indicate that more than 395 churches were razed or burnt down, between 5,600–6,500 houses plundered or burnt down, over 600 villages ransacked and more than 60,000 – 75,000 people left homeless. Other reports put the death toll at nearly 100 and suggested more than 40 women were sexually assaulted. Unofficial reports placed the number of those killed to more than 500. Many Christian families were burnt alive. Thousands of Christians were forced to convert to Hinduism under threat of violence. Many Hindu families were also assaulted in some places because they supported the Indian National Congress (INC) party. This violence was led by the Bajrang Dal, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the VHP.
An illegal immigrant in India is a foreigner who has entered India either without valid documents or who initially had a valid document, but has overstayed beyond the permitted time, as per the general provisions of the Citizenship Act as amended in 2003. Such persons are not eligible for citizenship by registration or naturalisation. They are also liable to be imprisoned for 2–8 years and fined.
Dhantala is a village in the Ranaghat II CD block in the Ranaghat subdivision of the Nadia district in the state of West Bengal, India.
The Unnao rape case refers to the gang rape of a 17-year-old girl on 4 June 2017 in Unnao, Uttar Pradesh, India. On 16 December 2019, former BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar was convicted for the rape on 20 December 2019 and sentenced to life imprisonment. Further, Sengar was found guilty in the death of the girl's father in judicial custody.
The 2008 Kandhamal nun gang rape case refers to the gang-rape of a 28-year-old nun during the 2008 Kandhamal violence. The incident received media attention during the riots.
The Pollachi sexual assault case refers to a case of rape and extortion of numerous women by a gang in Pollachi, Coimbatore in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The gang would entice women into isolated places after befriending them on social media and sexually assault them and filmed the act. The videos were later used to blackmail the women for sexual favors or money. The gang came into spotlight after the family of a 19-year-old college student who claimed to had been sexually assaulted and blackmailed complained to the police. According to media accounts, at least 200 women are sexually assaulted in the very same manner and the victims were college and school teachers, doctors, higher secondary school students from all over the state. On the mobiles of the accused, police said they discovered dozens of video recordings of women being abused at a farmhouse belonging to one of the accused and some were leaked.
On 4 April 2022, a 14-year-old girl was raped in Hanskhali of Nadia district, West Bengal, India. The main accused are Brojogopali Gayali and his friends. Notably they are associated with TMC.
The Gajraula Nuns rape case is a unsolved rape and robbery case from the town of Gajraula in Uttar Pradesh. It occurred in the night of July 12, 1990 around 2 A.M. in the premises of St. Mary school. Six nuns were assaulted and two were raped and a total of 110,000 rupees were stolen. The case caught national attention when the media started reporting about it on 22 July 1990. Due to massive protests and pressure from Christian groups then Uttar Pradesh Chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav declared 2 lakh rupees compensation to the two nuns who were raped and promised for immediate action. Four people were arrested by the Uttar Pradesh Police with 3 wristwatches which the police claimed to have been stolen on the night. The Supreme Court later acquitted the 4 men after the nuns said that they were not the culprit and they were being forced to accept them as the culprit. The case was given to Central Bureau of Investigation with only three months to investigate and file a Chargesheet.