The Bangladeshi Parliament passed the Women and Children...

The Bangladeshi Parliament passed the Women and Children Repression Prevention Bill 2000 proposed by Sheikh Hasina's government. The bill provides for stringent punishments ranging from imprisonment to death sentence for specific offences against women and children. The offences under the new law include use of inflammable chemicals against women and children, trafficking and kidnapping of women and children, demanding of ransom after kidnapping, rape and rape-related deaths, sexual molestation, murder for dowry and amputation of limbs of children for begging. All the offences under the law will be cognizable and nonbailable with few exceptions while a Women and Children Repression Tribunal will be formed in all districts to dispose of related cases. Opposition parties led by Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) chief and former prime minister Begum Khaleda Zia, accused Hasina's ruling Awami League of misrule and repression and staged a mass demonstration in Dhaka on February 3 to mobilise support against the bill. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said the death penalty for such crimes as the murder, abduction and trafficking of women and children, introduced years ago, had never served as an effective deterrent due to what she called "loopholes" in its implementation.