E/CN.4/1994/31 page 14 and a wound on one arm. His wife and children were released four days later, while he was transferred to Estrada Catete prison. One night while he was sleeping in his cell, a guard reportedly fired a shot at him and nearly killed him. Bangladesh Information transmitted to the Government 40. By letter dated 26 August 1993 the Special Rapporteur informed the Government that he had received reports concerning incidents of torture perpetrated by members of the military and paramilitary forces against tribal people in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, as well as by the police in other parts of the country. According to this information, torture in police custody occurred routinely but was rarely reported as the victims feared further ill-treatment by the police. It usually involved beating with sticks and rifle butts, as well as kicking with boots on sensitive parts of the body. 41. The incidence of rape in custody was reported to be high but, because of the social stigmatization faced by the victim, it usually went unreported. The legal requirement that rape had to be reported within 12 hours also made it difficult for the victim to file a complaint. 42. There were also reports about cases of death in custody as a result of torture. According to them, whenever a detainee died in police custody, the police were obliged to file an "unnatural death case", which necessitated a police inquiry into the death. To avoid this, the police had sometimes transferred the bodies of people who had died after torture to hospital, putting pressure on medical staff to have them falsely admitted as alive. 43. The individual cases described in the following paragraphs were transmitted to the Government. 44. Mominuddin Ahmed was arrested by uniformed police officers at his residence on 18 August 1992 and taken to the Kotwali police station in Rangpur. When his wife visited him two hours later in the police station, he could only speak with effort and told her that he had been severely kicked in the chest and stomach. He died in Rangpur Medical College Hospital on 1 September 1992. 45. Momina Khatum died of her injuries on 31 August 1992 in the village of Bazra Hat, Noahkali district, after a group of police officers reportedly subjected her to severe beating. An inquiry is reported to have taken place into the incident. 46. Finally, the Special Rapporteur drew the attention of the Government to the case of Nazrul Islam, who was reportedly 12 years old when he was arrested in 1980 and convicted of robbery. In December 1992 the High Court allegedly found that he had been illegally detained and that for 11 of these 12 years he had been held in leg irons.