Mother gang-raped holding son hostage in Mymensingh, main accused’s home vandalised - Prothom Alo English
On 22 September 2026, angry local residents vandalised the home of Sharif, the main accused in the rape case, in Gafargaon, Mymensingh.Screengrab taken from videoIn Mymensingh, angry local residents attacked and vandalised the home of the main accused in a case filed over the alleged gang rape of a woman while her ninth-grade son was held hostage.
The incident took place in Gafargaon upazila of the district on Tuesday morning.
The woman was allegedly gang-raped on Thursday night. The following night, Friday, she filed a case with Gafargaon police station as the complainant.
Police said five people had been named as accused in the case. They are Gafargaon residents Sharif, 23, his brother Arif, 21, Fahim, 22, Rajib, 23, and Enamul, 22. Police arrested Rajib in a raid on the night of the incident. The other accused are absconding.
According to local residents, angry people went to the home of Sharif, the main accused in the case, at around 9:30 am on Tuesday. They vandalised the corrugated iron fencing and roof of the house. The sheets were later removed and stacked beside the house.
Before that, family members of the accused had been moved to a safe location. The household belongings were also removed and kept elsewhere. Local residents held meetings on Sunday and Monday evenings to discuss the trial of the accused and decide what to do next.
According to the case statement and police sources, the victim’s husband is an expatriate. At around 8:00 pm on Thursday, five people went to the door of the house on the pretext of asking for water and an axe.
When the expatriate’s son came to the door with water, he was held hostage at gunpoint. The men entered the house and raped the woman. They also demanded money from the victim, threatening to record a video of the rape and circulate it on social media.
Gafargaon police station Officer-in-Charge (OC) Moniruzzaman Sheikh said police were sent to the scene after receiving reports that the main accused’s home had been vandalised.
He urged local residents not to take the law into their own hands and to provide police with information about the whereabouts of the other accused. Police operations to arrest the absconding suspects are under way.
