Bangladesh Police Arrests 27 Gay Men
According to media reports, in Bangladesh 27 men have been arrested for being gay, a crime punishable by life imprisonment.
The men, mostly students aged 20 to 30, had traveled across the country to hold a party at a community centre in Keraniganj, outside the country’s capital of Dhaka.
The arrests were made by the Rapid Action Battalion, an elite police unit repeatedly described by Human Rights Watch as a government “death squad”.
Commander Zahangir Hossain Matobbar of the unit’s tenth division said illegal drugs and condoms were recovered in the men’s possession.
The police plan to charge the suspects with drug offenses, not homosexuality, because they were detained before they engaged in sex, Associated Press has reported.
The elite unit also revealed it had arrested the owner of the community centre for their part in making the party possible.
As reported by the Washington Post, police said they recovered illegal drugs and condoms in their possession and the men would be charged with drug offenses rather than Bangladesh’s colonial-era sodomy law, because they were detained before they had sex, the AP report said.
However, a different RAB spokesman told Agence France-Presse that the men had been arrested “for homosexuality” and that it had not yet been determined how they would be formally charged.
Homosexual acts are illegal in Muslim-majority Bangladesh — as in more than 70 other countries in the world, including neighboring India. The mass arrests come on the heels of a recent high-profile case in Indonesia, where two men were sentenced to public lashings for gay sex under a strict new provincial sharia law.
Bangladesh’s legal code prohibits “unnatural offenses,” which it says includes voluntary “carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal.” The offense is punishable with life in prison.
The law is rarely enforced, but LGBT groups have reported that police use the law as a pretext to bully gay or simply effeminate individuals to prevent the formation of LGBT organizations, according to a 2016 U.S. State Department report on human rights practices from its Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor.
Last year, suspected militants killed a leading LGBT activist and his friend in Dhaka, reports The Independent.
The 35-year-old Xulhaz Mannan, a USAID official, was hacked to death in April last year at his home. He had founded the country’s only LGBT magazine Roopbaan and was a leading organiser of gays, who are ostracised in Bangladesh.
Since then, many of the gays and lesbians have left the country after they received death threats. Many still live double lives to avoid reprisals.
So sad that these 3rd world countries can be so ignorant and closed minded. This is exactly why their cultures will never rise from the mud.
LMAO, I laughed so hard at this….
lol
As a Bangladeshi I know LGBT people are in grave danger. Islamists killing gay people & government prosecutes LGBT community instead of giving protection.
Does not anyone read the article? They are gay but are being arrested based on drug charges, not being gay.
heartless thuggish society,I just wish something could be done in isolating bigoted countries.governments committing heinous crimes.I want to puke in horror.
Worldwide persecution of LGBT people has been on the rise since Trump took office .
He has yet to denounce any of these reports as well as the Chechnya massacre.
Amazing that the Jewish community is silent – after WWII you would think they of all people would be demanding something be done ( concentration camp style compounds ).
What a fool you are to think these Islamists give a damn that Trump got elected.
You are so full of yourself, you should be ashamed for spreading so many false hoods and lies about President Trump, You have absolutely no evidence to back up any of what you have said. Also President Trump has no way of controlling the laws of another nation that have been in place for years. With as many false hoods and lies you spread with your hate and discontent it doesn’t help the situation either because if someone believes you then why would they listen to President Trump, so in a sense your are cutting your own political throat by spreading these lies.
Fact: persecution of LGBTQ people are on the rise (see Russia, Bangladesh, Sudan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Mauritania, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Qatar, UAE, parts of Nigeria, parts of Somalia, parts of Syria and parts of Iraq) where oftentimes it is a crime punishable by either public caning, lifelong imprisonment, or death.
Fact: Donald Trump has not spoken out against these atrocities (see Google search)
Fact: Jewish people were persecuted in much the same way (see Holocaust, concentration camps) and the Jewish community has not spoken out against the assault against the LGBTQ community.
Your response is indicative of an ignorant person who follows blindly into the world; incapable of reading news yourself you likely get all of your news from the television. Donald Trump cannot forcibly change the laws in other countries (duh), but by speaking out publicly against these acts he has much power in influence. His silence is deafening. And your reply is emotionally charged out of ignorance, fear, or just plain stupidity!
“Truth” I’m still waiting for your president, Mr. Obama, to ever speak a foul word about the “Religion of Peace.” Did you say anything about President Obama managing to celebrate what he referred to as the “Holy Koran” and all of it’s great lessons? I’m guessing not. Now that Trump is in office for a few months you want him to be responsible for things that have happened in these countries for centuries? You really do sound like an idiot.
There’s nothing wrong with the Koran, moron. Its with some of the followers of it. JUST LIKE there’s nothing wrong with the Bible…its some of the Christians (like the KKK, and others) that are the problem.
The fact that you can’t tell the difference tells the rest of us all we need to know about how smart YOU are.
Is there nothing that isn’t Trump’s fault. It is so over used that when something is his fault, no one will listen — like Chicken Little.
In the Old Testament homosexual acts are an abomination so why would the Jews voice concern for those who commit such acts?
Blaming Trump for laws that have existed in these countries for centuries sounds like a stretch, don’t you think? I don’t think the POTUS invented Islam, which is specific about disallowing homosexuality.
But Bangladesh’s Leader gave Hillary a donation to her Foundation. Things that make you wonder.
This has nothing to do with Trump. That statement just sounds ridiculous. This has everything to do with a government and law called Sharia. When the Liberals support people coming from a country with Sharia laws, they also support this kind of thing happening in America. They congregate in small areas and take control then big areas and then, well let’s just say the Liberals will be shocked and sickened at what they have allowed to happen in their own country. Islam is a government first and foremost that is supported by a religion. It’s not a race of people like some of the nut jobs are saying. Islamist come from all races. It’s a iron fisted government that has zero tolerance for those who do not follow it.
I’m guessing there aren’t many gay rights protests in Bangladesh!
Ah the ‘religion of peace’ strikes again. This is why the West needs to stop all immigration of muslims. All they really want is to take over the world and impose their 12th century sharia law.
If you look at the polling numbers out of “civilized” countries like Egypt, you’ll find that the people generally support punishments for offenses that seem barbaric to us. It makes me concerned to think about how we’re importing refugees from some countries who believe homosexuality is punishable by caning, stoning, or worse.
I guess no Gay Pride Parade this year either…..thanks Trump…..
Why not arrest all the straight couples in Bangladesh, since they are the ones giving birth to gay babies.
a I rather have gays being gay then dealing with muslims . Honestly if your gay ,and your country hates you ,just leave and try to make a better life somewhere else
Well, Pakistan is a Muslim country and being Queer is against their law. It will be in the rest of Europe where /when Shia law is implemented! Take heed those liberals who support Muslims.
I’m currently shaking right now. Some of my friends were able to flee the country but many were unable to do so. There is nothing I can do. The world doesn’t care. I feel so powerless.
I am mortified. Absolutely gutted. I am so, so sorry for you and what you must be feeling at this moment, and all the more sorry for the persecuted innocents