Purnima Rani, a 12-year-old Hindu girl, is terrified and breaks down frequently as she describes what happened 18 months ago in the village of Perba Delua in Bangladesh. "Nearly 30 people came to our house. I recognised many of them as my neighbours. They beat my mother almost senseless. I begged them to stop. They dragged me outside. I resisted but they hit me with sticks. I shouted to my sister to save me but they beat her too. I cannot tell you what happened next." Purnima was gang-raped and her family found her unconscious three hours later in a field a mile from the village. Four young men, all supporters of the government and its coalition partner, the fundamentalist Jamaati-e-Islami party, were arrested but have not been charged. But the ordeal did not stop there. The family's hairdressing business was twice looted, her elder brother was beaten and is expected to lose his sight, and they have now all fled the village after threats that they would be killed. Her father has been offered bribes to drop the case and Purnima, one of the few victims of Bangladeshi sectarian violence who is prepared to talk openly, is now in hiding. "I want justice, not money," she says.
