A 19-year-old woman was allegedly subjected to a brutal sexual assault in Brahmanbaria’s Bijoynagar Upazila after a man she met on a bus promised to help her reach her husband. Quick-thinking local residents intervened as the suspect attempted to abandon the victim on a dark stretch of highway, capturing him before handing him over to law enforcement authorities.
The harrowing incident unfolded late Monday night, around 10:00 PM, near the Budhanti bus stand along the busy Dhaka-Sylhet highway. The accused, identified as 35-year-old Jasim Mia, is a resident of Alinagar village within the Budhanti Union of the same upazila.
According to accounts shared by local witnesses and police investigators, the survivor originally hails from Chatkhil Upazila in Noakhali. Approximately eight months prior, she married a man from Netrokona who currently earns his living working at a local bakery in Bijoynagar. Eager to visit her spouse, the young woman departed Noakhali on Monday morning, travelling by bus to the Cumilla Cantonment area. From there, she boarded a regional passenger bus heading toward Sylhet via the inter-district highway.
Fate brought her into contact with Jasim Mia, who occupied a seat adjacent to hers on the bus. During the journey, the conversation turned personal, and the young woman confided that she was travelling to Bijoynagar to reunite with her husband. Instead of assisting her, Jasim allegedly manipulated the situation. When the bus approached the destination, he bypassed Bijoynagar entirely, coaxing her to disembark further down the route in the Madhabpur Upazila of adjacent Habiganj district.
Under the false pretext of guiding her safely to her husband’s workplace, Jasim escorted her back into Bijoynagar Upazila, taking her to a secluded, abandoned factory building situated east of the Monihar Cinema Hall in the Satborga area. It was inside this isolated structure that the violent assault took place, according to the formal complaint lodged by the survivor.
Following the attack, the perpetrator forced the distressed woman into a CNG-powered auto-rickshaw, pretending once again to facilitate her journey to her husband. However, as the vehicle neared the Budhanti area, Jasim attempted to forcefully eject her from the moving transport onto the roadside. The aggressive behaviour and the woman’s obvious distress aroused immediate suspicion among fellow passengers and nearby residents. Sensing danger, the local crowd converged on the vehicle, restrained the fleeing suspect, and alerted the local police outpost.
Personnel from the Islampur police outpost rushed to the scene following the emergency call, taking custody of the accused from the vigilant public while safely sheltering the traumatized survivor. Sub-Inspector Faruk Miah, in charge of the Islampur police camp, confirmed that the victim was immediately placed under police protection.
Inspector (Investigation) Md Ahsan Ullah of Bijoynagar Police Station stated that the survivor filed a formal criminal case as the plaintiff, formally accusing Jasim of rape. She was subsequently transferred to the One-Stop Crisis Centre at the Brahmanbaria General Hospital for a comprehensive medical and forensic examination. The accused was produced before a local court on Tuesday afternoon under a newly registered rape charge and subsequently remanded to judicial custody as legal proceedings press forward.
