Dhaka, Bangladesh - A spate of vigilante-style murders of rape suspects in Bangladesh has raised fears of possible extra-judicial killings amid anger over rising rape cases in the South Asian country.

At least three rape suspects have been found murdered in the past two weeks with a note hung around their necks - confessing their crimes.

One of the bodies was found dumped in a village in southwestern district of Jhalakathi on January 26.
Mahmud Hasan of Boltala village went running towards the field when he was told there was a dead body lying in a paddy field. The police were already at the scene when he arrived.
A note, hung from the neck of the body, read: "I am Sajal. I am the rapist of the [victim’s name]. This is my punishment."

"The government should launch proper investigations to probe these murders. No one should be allowed to be killed extra-judicially."

Nur Khan Liton, rights activist

"The body was found lying face down. There was a wound near his left eye. It seemed like a bullet wound. But strangest was the note that hung around his neck," said Hasan, chairman of Shaulakania Union - the country’s smallest local government unit.
Another body with a similar note had been found a few days before in Savar - some 260km away from Boltala village in Shaulakania. "It felt strange and scary to see this happen in my area…but it also felt like justice," Hasan told Al Jazeera.
Over a week before Sajal's body was discovered, police found another body with a possible bullet wound to the head and a similar note tied around the neck that read: "I am the prime accused in a rape case" in Savar, a district near the capital, Dhaka.
The body was of Ripon, 39, a key suspect in a gang-rape and murder of a female garment worker in the beginning of this year. The third dead body was found on February 1 near a brickfield in Jhalakathi, the same district where Sajal's body was found. A note was placed around the neck hinting at possible role of vigilantes behind the latest killing that has raised eyebrows. The deceased, Rakib Molla, 28, was an accomplice of Sajal in the gang rape of a madrasa student in Bhandaria sub-district. Molla's body had multiple wounds, including one to the head, and this time, the note seemed to be signed by the vigilante, using an "alter ego". It read: "I am Rakib who raped [victim's name]. This is the fate of the rapist. Rapists be aware….Hercules."
Who is killing these people? Local police still haven't turned up evidence in the identity of "Hercules" or the murders, while the police headquarters in Dhaka have yet to launch an investigation.
"Local police are investigating. We don't see any need for further investigation from headquarter. At this point, we are not even sure that the same person or the group is doing these murders," Sohel Rana, Additional Inspector General of Police Headquarters, told Al Jazeera.
"This Hercules could be anyone," he said. But the family members of two of those killed said: They were picked up by plain-clothed people before they were found dead. Abul Kalam, father of Rakib told Al Jazeera that after there was allegation of rape against Rakib, he left the village for Nabinagar near the capital. On January 25, Rakib was drinking tea along with a friend when a black microbus stopped and picked them both. "His friend was later released and he told us that Rakib was picked up by the police. His mother tried to file a general complaint of a missing person but the police station didn’t take it," Kalam said. "His dead body was later found. I believe the police killed him," he added. Rikta Begum, wife of Ripon, another suspect killed mysteriously, said on January 11 her husband was picked from his home in Ashulia near Dhaka by some plain-clothed people who identified themselves as members of detective branch (DB) of police. "Six days later, we found him dead," said Begum. An 18-year-old female garment worker was found dead in her house on January 7 in Ashulia's Berun area hours after she had filed a case against Ripon and three others. Shamsun Nahar, Sajal's wife, told Al Jazeera that her husband, a friend of Rakib, left home after rape allegations. "On the night of January 22, he called me and told me that he was heading towards the port city of Chittagong. That was the last call. There was no trace of him until January 26 when we found his body near our village," she said.
Police denies involvement Shawkat Alam, Inspector (Investigation) of Savar police station who is investigating Ripon's murder, denied the role of DB police in the murder. "As far as we have found, Ripon went into hiding after there was a case filed against him for rape and murder," Alam told Al Jazeera. Mohammad Zahid Hossain, officer-in-charge of Rajapur police station who is investigating Rakib's murder, said: "We are still investigating the murder."
Hossain also ruled out the role of the plain-clothed policemen in Rakib's disappearance and his subsequent killing.
While the investigating officer in Sajal's case blamed a professional killer behind the murder. "Sajal had a single wound in the head. He was probably shot in a point-blank range," Gazi Fazlur Rahman told Al Jazeera.
Extra-judicial killings? Human right activist Nur Khan Liton said that the killings of four rape suspects within a span of just two weeks - three in a similar fashion - "raise a lot of questions". The fourth rape suspect was killed in a gun-fight with the police in Chittagong on January 29. There has been an alarming rise of rape cases in the country, Liton said. According to the data from Ain-o-Salish Kendra, a human rights body based in Dhaka, of which Liton is a former director, a total of 732 women and 444 children were raped in 2018 – rise of 18 percent compared to 2017.
At least 79 incidents of rapes took place in January alone this year, among which 22 were cases of gang rapes, according to a report by Bangladesh Mahila Parishad (BMP). 
Between January 2014 and December 2017, a total of 17,289 cases of women and child rapes were recorded throughout the country, Asaduzzaman Khan, the minister of home affairs told parliament in February last year. Nearly 80 percent of those cases are still pending. "All of these incidents had happened during a time when there is serious discontent among the public about rape. The Subarnachar rape incident of a mother of four just after the general elections had enraged the country," said Liton.
In a country where rape convictions are abysmally low, some people on social media have hailed "Hercules" as a "vigilante" who delivers justice.
People referred to the case of Sohagi Jahan Tanu, a second year high-school student who was raped and murdered in March 2016 in Comilla town. That case has made little headway despite a public outrage and widespread media coverage.
Bangladesh government under Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been criticised for rising cases of extra-judicial killings and enforced disapearances.
Last year, over 200 people were killed extra-judicially within just few months as part of a brutal crackdown against drug dealers. Extra judicial killings across the country of nearly 160 million also reached the highest in the past six years, with 466 killed in 2018 alone. "The recent killings naturally raise a lot of questions, especially considering the facts that the country has a long tainted record of extra-judicial killings," said Liton, the rights activists.
"The government should launch proper investigations to probe these murders. No one should be allowed to be killed extra-judicially."Source: aljazeera.com