While protests demanding the eradication of sexual assault in Bangladesh continue day after day, the Bangladeshi government is considering raising the level of punishment for sexual assault criminals to the death penalty, reports from local media such as Dakattribun.
Bangladesh's Ministry of Justice Minister Anisul Hook said, "We are making amendments to the law under the direction of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. We want the perpetrators to face the strongest punishment."
Under the current law, the highest sentence in Bangladesh for sexual assault criminals is life imprisonment, which is interpreted as a means of improving the level of punishment by modifying these laws.
The reason why the Bangladeshi government is making this move is because of the recent series of brutal sexual assaults across the country, and protests have continued on a daily basis.
These protests were triggered by a mass rape incident in the southern Noakali district last month.
In Noakali, a housewife was sexually assaulted by several men in her house, and the related footage was filmed and shared online, including Facebook on the 4th.
In the northeastern Sylhet, local media reported that a woman was raped by five men in a university dormitory, and in the northern Dinajipur district, a 13-year-old child was kidnapped and then gang raped.
A local civic group said that 889 rape victims were reported in Bangladesh from January to August this year, of which 40 were killed.
(Photo = Reuters, Yonhap News)