JusticeMakers Bangladesh call for impartial justice after gay man murdered
JusticeMakers Bangladesh, a human rights advocacy group, is calling for swift and impartial justice after a gay man was murdered in Charbhadrasan in November 2022. The alleged murderer has confessed to the crime but claims that he murdered his same-sex lover because he forced him into homosexuality, sparking concerns that justice will not be served.
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JusticeMakers Bangladesh has expressed deep concern over the killing of Kausar Khan, a homosexual sand trader of Charbhadrasan in the Faridpur district. In a statement released to media, JusticeMakers Bangladesh strongly demands that the accused criminal must be given exemplary punishment in a transparent trial after a quick and impartial investigation of the incident.
According to a November 2022 report published on BanglaNews24.com, Khan went missing on November 25. On the following morning, locals informed the police after finding Kausar’s body at the Padma Bank in Char Harirampur. Using information technology, the police found a suspect named Shah Jahan Sifat, who was allegedly involved in the murder, and arrested him.
Sifat allegedly had a homosexual relationship with Kausar and allegedly stabbed him in the throat with a knife. Later, Kausar was stabbed in the back, throat, neck and back of the head.
Police say Sifat confessed to the murder under interrogration, alleging that Kausar had forced him into homosexuality. Later, based on the information given by Sifat, police recovered the burnt part of the mobile phone, jacket, shirt-pants and the knife used in the murder from his house. The Superintendent of Police says that a case has been filed at Charbhadrasan police station. Sifat’s father Shaheen Molla has also been arrested for allegedly destroying evidence of the murder.
Shahanur Islam, the founder and secretary-general of JusticeMakers Bangladesh, strongly condemns the killing of the Kausar.
In addition, Islam demands the state provide exemplary punishment by revealing the real reason behind the killing in a speedy, transparent, and impartial trial, and also to provide adequate security and compensation to the victim’s family.
Islam also called upon the administration to get over the mentality of blaming the victimized gay person for the incident of any violence he suffered. He says the murder of a gay man in Faridpur is not an isolated incident, rather, this is only a small part of the discrimination, deprivation, murder, kidnapping, injuries and various basic human rights violations committed against the homosexual minority in Bangladesh.
“People of the homosexual community, including the gay community, are constantly being subjected to various types of human rights violations including discrimination, deprivation, torture, from family, society, the workplace and the state. But due to social unacceptance and intolerance, most of those incident of violence remained closed,” Islam says.
Islam also calls for constitutional recognition of homosexuals and repeal of Section 377 of the Penal Code, which criminalizes same-sex intimacy, and the enactment of a Homosexual Protection Act as soon as possible.
