PM for public awareness to stop rape

Online desk

Describing rape as a social disease, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Thursday underlined the need for raising public awareness to put an end to this crime.

While addressing the concluding session of the 70th basis training course of the Bangladesh Public Administration Training Centre, she also said the menace has seen a rise to a large extent in recent times.

The prime minister said the more rape incidents are publicised, the more the menace is increasing.

She said an ordinance was promulgated amending the law incorporating a provision of the death penalty as the highest punishment for rape. “Extensive measures will have to be taken to prevent such incidents. It’s also necessary to create public awareness to this end.”

Bangladesh on Tuesday introduced the death penalty for rape amid growing demand for highest punishment to the rapists following high level of sexual violence against women.

President Abdul Hamid promulgated the Children Repression Prevention (Amendment) Ordinance directly making it into law.

The move to amend the law came amid the growing demand for capital punishment for rapists from different quarters following a spate of rape incidents in the country.

The gang-rape of a young woman after confining her husband to an MC College dormitory in Sylhet and the brutal gang assault on a woman after being stripped in Noakhali triggered angry protests across the country.

Protesters galvanised by the two incidents demanded that the highest punishment for rape be death sentence.