A nation outraged

Okkhoy's case would have gone unnoticed were it not for his father's chance meeting with a human rights lawyer, Alena Khan.

When Abed went to the police to report the attack, he was told a case was already in the books.

Someone who identified himself as the boy's uncle had told police that Okkhoy was assaulted by two boys in a playground spat that turned ugly.

"Two little boys are capable of such brutality? And you believe that?" the incredulous father asked.

"Yes, now let us do our job," he was told and dismissed.

Undeterred, Abed decided to appeal to a judge. But there, too, he was told to let the police handle the matter.

In the courthouse that day was Khan who, as founder of Bangladesh Human Rights Foundation, has made a career of upsetting the status quo.

When a university student was tortured to death in police custody, she represented the family. When officers raped a woman and destroyed evidence, she dragged them to court. And when a high-ranking police official sold orphaned children from his home, she secured his conviction.

"I saw the father standing there helplessly before the judge, and I kept thinking that there's a child who has been broken beyond repair," she recalls.

Khan decided the first thing the case needed was attention, and she contacted a local television station.

"No child should go through this," she says.

The response from an outraged nation was immediate.

The high court asked authorities to launch an inquiry.

And within days, the Rapid Action Battalion rounded up five suspects and charged them with attempted murder.

"The boy started arguing with us and I hit him on his head with a brick," said one of the men in a televised confession.

In a chilling monotone, he recounted the assault, naming each of the attackers.

"After I hit him on the head, he fell to the ground. Then (one of the men) said to cut off his penis, and I cut it off. After that, (someone else) cut his chest and belly. Then (a third person) held his head and slit his throat."

Why did they target Okkhoy?

It was payback, his father says.