Thirteen-year-old Ishayat Shahriar Opratim left home in Cumilla last Friday carrying his mother’s iPhone, intending to take photographs with friends. His body was recovered the next day from a woodland in the Sananda area of the Lalmai hills beside Cumilla University.

Police and his family said Opratim’s body bore signs of a head injury. The initial police assessment is that the killing may have been carried out to snatch the phone, though investigators say further enquiries are needed to confirm the motive.

Seventh-grade student Opratim was the only child of Dr Nahida Begum, who teaches in the Bangla department at Comilla University.

In another incident, a child went missing from her home in Sylhet on May 6. Her body was recovered two days later from a local pond. The prosecution alleged attempted rape and murder, and the court sentenced Zakir Hossain, a neighbour, to death.

The recovery of an eight-year-old’s body from an apartment in Pallabi on May 19 likewise led to information that she had been raped before being killed; in that case the court sentenced Sohel Rana and his wife Swapna Akter to death.

Disparate though they are, such cases bring into focus the alarming state of child safety in Bangladesh. 14,602 incidents of violence against women and children were recorded in the first eight months of 2026, an average of nearly 60 a day, while 254 children died in various forms of violence over the same period, more than one a day on average.

Both government and non-governmental data paint the same picture: a major gap in the existing system for ensuring the safety of women and children.

Police headquarters data show that every month from January to August this year recorded more than a thousand such incidents. January saw 1,281; February, 1,181; March, 1,485; April, 2,011; May, 1,952; June, 2,200; July, 2,336; and August, 2,156.

Forty-three percent of the 254 children killed in various forms of violence between January and August were aged between 13 and 18, according to Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK). Children aged up to six accounted for nearly 29 percent of the total deaths. The figures show that both adolescents and very young children remain vulnerable to violence.

Rezaul Karim Shohag, chairman of the Criminology Department at Dhaka University, told Bonik Barta that such a high number of incidents of violence against women and children meant that efforts to ensure their safety were not yielding the expected results.

These crimes could not be reduced through reactive measures alone, taken only after an incident had occurred, he said. “The risk factors have to be identified and preventive or proactive measures taken in advance.”

“Families, educational institutions, local administration and law enforcement agencies must work in coordination. If, alongside this, visible justice can be ensured through a proper investigation of each incident, it will instil a fear of punishment in offenders and make it possible to strengthen the safety of women and children,” Shohag added.

ASK Executive Director Tahmina Rahman told Bonik Barta that incidents of violence against women and children could not be treated as isolated cases and the 14,602 incidents of violence in eight months along with the 254 children killed highlighted the severity of the situation.

Offenders were further emboldened when they could get away with crime, she said. “Children can’t ensure their own safety. Alongside families and society standing by women and children at risk, swift investigation, effective justice and accountability for each incident must be ensured.”

She stressed the need to make the safety of women and children a national priority.

AIG (Media) AHM Shahadat Hossain said the police attach the utmost importance to the safety of women and children.

“When an incident occurs, action is taken as soon as a complaint is received, and every incident is investigated as a priority matter,” Hossain noted.

He said families and society also had an important role to play in protecting women and children, calling on them to report any abuse or crime to law enforcement promptly rather than conceal it, and remain vigilant about women and children in vulnerable situations.