Incidents of rape keep rising with the crime taking place in running buses, trains, and in other public places mostly, according to rights activists, due to the existing culture of impunity.
At least 7,068 rape cases were reported in 2025 compared with 5,570 in 2024, according to police headquarters data.
A total of 9,143 rape cases were filed across the country until December 2025 from August 2024 when the interim government was installed, data show.
According to Bangladesh Mahila Parishad president Fouzia Moslem, the prevailing culture of impunity, existing social attitude towards girls and women, and the ongoing indifference of government agencies are the main causes behind the increasing menace across the country.
In a recent incident, a 26-year-old woman was allegedly raped on a moving bus by its driver and staff in the early hours of January 15 after she boarded the bus in Savar on the outskirts of the capital to go to Ashulia.
The victim left Dhaka for Ashulia by a Savar Paribahan bus at about 11:30pm on Wednesday, the police said, adding that at that time there were two other passengers on the bus.
The police headquarters data show that 401cases were filed in December, 578 in November, 664 in October, 664 in September, 589 in August, 688 in July, 634 in June, 636 in May, 684 in April, 620 in March, 437 in February and 473 in January of 2025.
In 2024, the figure was 363 in December, 416 in November, 498 in October, 478 in September, 324 in August, 558 in July, 549 in June, 590 in May, 497 in April, 477 in March, 455 in February and 365 in January.
Rights organisation Ain o Salish Kendra data, compiled from newspaper reports and the information the orgainsation received, show that 749 women and children fell victim to rape in 2025, compared with 401 reported in 2024.
But according to rights activists, the actual number would be higher as many cases go unreported and many victims refrain from filing cases due to fear of stigma.
The ASK in its yearly report for 2025 said that the majority of the victims were children and adolescents with at least 370 of the 749 victims being under 18.
In the Savar bus rape incident, after the other passengers got off the bus, the driver and staff of the bus forcibly kept the young woman confined inside the bus and snatched her gold ornaments, money, and mobile phone.
Later, the bus moved around different places and the driver and staff allegedly raped the woman by turn throughout the night and recorded the incident in a mobile phone.
According to women rights activists, the absence of rule of law, deterioration of the overall law and order, social and political unrest, and the culture of impunity are causes of increase in rape incidents.
Fouzia Moslem said that rapes marked a sharp rise due to the failure to improve the law and order even after about one and a half years of the interim government rule.
She also pointed out that misogynistic propaganda had blatantly increased after the political changeover in August 2024 and the interim government failed to take a strong stand against the social evil.
‘The country is in an unstable state politically and we know that mariginal communities, including women, become more vulnerable during such situations. In such conditions, the government should have taken special measures to prevent violence against women and children, including rapes,’ the women rights activist added.
The additional inspector general of police for Crime and Operations, Khondoker Rafiqul Islam, however, claimed that rape incidents were seen high as the number of reporting system was higher compared to the previous time.
‘We don’t pressurise anyone not to file cases. But some cases are later found to be not conventional rapes,’ he said.
Rapes, he commented, are not related to the law and order.
Asked about police preventive measures, the additional IGP said that they detected the persons involved, recording cases and arrested the accused as their primary tasks.
‘We also increase the number of check posts, enhance vigilance and intelligence surveillance to stop the recurrence of such incidents,’ he added.
Dhaka University sociology department honourary professor AI Mahbub Uddin Ahmed said that the country’s ongoing anarchic situation and the lack of values among
people were among the main reasons behind the ‘rape culture’.
‘Societal norms teaching the young people that men are superior to women should also be blamed for the rape culture in the country. Besides, the connection of perpetrators with powerful quarters encourages bad elements to engage in rapes,’ he observed.
Urging the government to ensure safety of women everywhere, professor AI Mahbub Uddin Ahmed stressed a reoriented and gender-sensitive police force and a fair justice system to curb rape incidents.
In another recent incident, a 16-year-old girl was raped by two Ansar members at the Manikganj 250-bed General Hospital in the early hours of January 12 this year.
The incident occurred when the victim along with her husband were traveling from Narayanganj to their relatives in Manikganj on his auto-rickshaw.
The auto-rickshaw’s battery ran out of charge at about 2:00am prompting them to take shelter at the hospital where the accused Ansar members assured the couple of assistance and took them inside the hospital.
The Ansar members then left the husband on the ground floor and took the victim on the first floor of the hospital’s newly constructed building, where they allegedly raped her after intimidating her.
Supreme Court lawyer Miti Sanjana said that culprits were managing to escape punishment owing to a huge case backlog that encouraged them to commit more offences.
‘The Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal is overburdened with such cases, which is why the conviction rate in such cases are very low, prolonging the victims’ wait for justice and letting the perpetrators to go scot-free,’ she said.
A zero tolerance policy for violence against women and ensuring equality for the citizens are the prerequisites if the state really wants the situation to improve, Miti further stressed.
In the early hours of January 16 this year, a garment worker was allegedly raped by two local youths after her fiancé was beaten and tied up on a Meghna river embankment in Manpura upazila of Bhola.
Earlier in March of 2025, countrywide anti-rape protests sparked following the brutal killing of an eight-year-old girl after she was raped and murdered at the house of her sister- in-law in Magura.
On May 17, 2025, the Magura Women and Children Repression (Prevention) Tribunal sentenced prime accused Hitu Sheikh, 50, to death for raping the girl.
