This article is more than 8 months old

This article is more than 8 months old

Police in Bangladesh have arrested a man in connection with the alleged rape of a student at Dhaka University amid angry protests on campus.

More than 2,000 students and human rights activists – some brandishing placards asking: “Tell me, am I next?” – demonstrated this week following the alleged rape of the 21-year-old student. They demanded the death penalty for anyone found guilty of rape.

Four students went on hunger strike.

“Rape incidents have been increasing in Bangladesh due to leniency in the justice system and I demand speedy justice by hanging of the people committing rape,” Sagufta Bushra, a female demonstrator and student leader in at the university, told The Guardian.

“This is the way the crime would be stopped.”

Nurul Haque Nur, vice-president of the university’s central students’ union, said: “We will call for country-wide demonstrations to ensure justice and demand the early conviction of the culprit through judicial trial.

“We are concerned about our basic rights. I am against the death sentence but rapists should not be spared strict punishment.”

Kazi Haque, the local chief of police, confirmed a man had been arrested in connection with the alleged rape and said the investigation was ongoing.

The victim was attacked on the way to a friend’s house on the outskirts of Dhaka on Sunday. She is still being treated for her injuries.

“She is still in trauma and unable speak about the incident,” said a friend.

More than 17,000 rape cases have been registered in Bangladesh since 2014, according to a government minister.

Rights groups said the number of rape cases has almost doubled over the past two years, from 732 in 2018 to 1,413 last year.

Prosecution and conviction rates remain low and can take several years to come to trial. A women rights organisation, Naripokkho, conducted a study of reported rape cases in six districts in Bangladesh from 2011 to 2018. It found that only five of 4,372 reported cases resulted in a conviction.

Rape convictions in Bangladesh carry a maximum of 10 years’ imprisonment.

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Countrywide demonstrations were held in Bangladesh in April last year following the murder of a 19-year-old student, Nusrat Jahan Rafi, who was doused in kerosene and set on fire at her school after alleging that she had been sexually harassed by her headteacher. The police and the school ignored her complaints.

Sixteen people were later convicted and sentenced to death, including Rafi’s teacher.

After the brutal murder, the government ordered an estimated 27,000 educational institutions in the country to form five-strong committees, headed by female teachers, to combat sexual violence and harassment.