CAT/C/34/D/226/2003 Page 15 torture upon return to Bangladesh. In assessing the risk, the Committee must take into account all relevant considerations, pursuant to article 3, paragraph 2, of the Convention, including the existence of a consistent pattern of gross, flagrant or mass violations of human rights. However, the Committee recalls that the aim of such determination is to establish whether the individual concerned would be personally at risk of being subjected to torture in the country to which he would return. It follows that the existence of a consistent pattern of gross, flagrant or mass violations of human rights on a country does not as such constitute a sufficient ground for determining that a particular person would be in danger of being subjected to torture upon his or her return to that country; additional grounds must exist to show that the individual concerned would be personally at risk. Similarly, the absence of a consistent pattern of gross violations of human rights does not mean that a person cannot be considered to be in danger of being subjected to torture in his or her specific circumstances. 7.3 The Committee has noted the State party’s contention that since the Awami League is currently in political opposition, the risk for the complainant to be exposed to harassment by the authorities at the instigation of members of the party no longer exists. The State party further argues that the complainant does not have anything to fear from the political parties now in power, since she is a member of one of the parties represented in Congress. However, the State party has not contested that the complainant had in the past been persecuted, detained, raped and tortured. The Committee notes the complainant’s statement that she belongs to a faction of the Jatiya Party which is in opposition to the ruling party, and that torture of political opponents is frequently practiced by state agents. Furthermore, the acts of torture to which the author was subjected to, appear not only to have been inflicted as a punishment for her involvement in political activities, but also as a retaliation for the political activities of her husband and his presumed involvement in a political crime. The Committee also notes that her husband is still in hiding, that the torture to which she was subjected occurred in a recent past and has been medically certified, and that the complainant is still being searched by the police in Bangladesh. 7.4 In the circumstances, the Committee considers that substantial grounds exist for believing that Ms T. A. may risk being subjected to torture if returned to