Two women were reportedly abducted and gang-raped at a local sawmill in Cumilla's Nangalkot upazila on Thursday (January 9).
The perpetrators allegedly recorded videos of the assault and threatened to release them on social media if the victims spoke out.
The incident occurred in the afternoon at a sawmill in Sebakhola area of Nurpur village under Bangadda union in the upazila.
The two victims lodged a formal complaint at Nangalkot Police Station on Sunday afternoon, triggering a public outcry in the area.
The main accused of the incident, include Md. Mohsin, locally known as a Jubo Dal activist, and Khokon Mia, the sawmill owner. While the identities of others involved are yet to be confirmed.
The victims narrated similar accounts, stating that Mohsin and his associates lured them into the sawmill under false pretenses and confined them in a room. There, they were brutally assaulted and gang-raped by 10-12 men, including Mohsin and Khokon. The perpetrators filmed the assault and physically assaulted the women when they tried to resist, threatening to kill them if they screamed. The ordeal lasted from noon to 4 PM, after which the women were released upon pleading for their freedom.
Following the incident, the accused fled the area.
The accused and the sawmill owner Khokon Mia, contacted via phone, claimed that Mohsin and his group forcibly entered his mill with the women and that he had no involvement in the crime.
Nangalkot Police Station officer-in-charge A.K. Fazlul Haque confirmed that the victims filed a gang-rape complaint and that police have visited the scene. "Efforts are underway to arrest the perpetrators," he stated.
