Police arrest three for assaulting female journalist, brother

Police have arrested three individuals for physically assaulting a woman, who is a journalist working in an English newspaper, and her brother in Dhaka's Banasree.

The journalist, Rafia Tamanna, posted about the incident on Facebook, which eventually went viral on Wednesday.

She filed a case over the incident, said Rampura Police Station chief Ataur Rahman. Law enforcers arrested the three soon after the case was filed.

"Can't we be safe even near our homes?" Rafia asked in her Facebook post.

She wrote that a few men had cat-called her, prompting her brother to stand up for her. The culprits then began arguing, questioning why the brother would defend her. As things escalated, they started beating him up. She then tried to protect her brother by trying to pull them away, but the men proceeded to touch her, she alleged.

"One of them, who wore a green shirt, suddenly pulled my hair, groped, and yanked me. Another in a black shirt kicked me. Then I started wailing and told everyone ‘Do you see how they’re touching and assaulting me?’ "Then the man in the green shirt came and said, 'You're a journalist? Call whoever you want. Call the police - you can tell them my name'," she wrote.

"[My brother] was beaten by those cheap hooligans near our home only because he tried to save his sister. Seeing everyone else just standing in silence, I landed a blow or two. I regret not being able to throw a couple [of punches] more," a disgruntled Rafia wrote.

The men were extremely arrogant, she said.

“When I had almost fainted crying, the man [in green] ridiculed me saying ‘You act as if we’ve raped you’.”

Two of the arrestees are suspects named in the case while the third is under suspicion of involvement in the incident.