The So-called Emergency
Saad Hammadi reveals the horrendous stories of torture in custody by law enforcing agencies and finds out the steps and preparations to try the perpetrators of custodial torture and extrajudicial killing
It was at his nephew’s wedding where Ritchil would last be seen sporting a smile on his face to complement his relaxed demeanour. For on his way back from the event on that fateful afternoon of March 18, 2007,
he was abducted by joint forces from Kalibari in Mymensingh. What followed was a brutal and unprecedented instance of torture on Ritchil, a prominent ethnic minority leader, for his staunch opposition to the government’s inconsiderate decision to develop Eco Park at Madhupur, Tangail – a decision which would evict some 25,000 people belonging to the Garo ethnic community.
At the Kakraidh Army Camp, Ritchil was laid down with his eyes blindfolded and his hands and legs tied. His body soon bore innumerable marks of pricking while his limbs were fractured by the beating he was subjected to. The nails from his fingers and toes were pulled out and pliers were used to press his testicles while hot water was poured into his nostrils. Ritchil’s by then disjointed figure was then hung upside down as the merciless beating continued. He vomited a massive amount of blood and fainted several times until his last breath of life in the custody of the joint forces.
These are just some accounts of the horrific pain inflicted upon Ritchil, his wife, Sandha Rani Simsang testifies to the human rights coalition Odhikar. She had learnt of her husband’s tragic fate from a relative who had also been picked up by the joint forces along with Ritchil but was released afterwards.
When Ritchil’s dead body was handed to his family a day later on March 19, 2007, his eyes were taken out, his testicles removed, anus mutilated, the palms of both hands smashed and nails of three fingers of his right hand removed.
Sandha wanted to file a case but the officer in charge of the Madhupur Police Station only allowed her to file a general diary on March 20, 2007. NOT even the family members of Din Islam, a fourth year student at Dhaka University, were spared the gut-wrenching torture or humiliation, until his capture. Islam was among the listed suspects of instigating the student protests and the violence that had ensued, following the army-student brawl during a football match at the DU on August 20, 2007, that also resulted in an army vehicle being torched.
Two days after the unfortunate events at the University, Islam had left for his village home Munshiganj as the government imposed a curfew and declared that all colleges and universities were to be closed.
A hunt for Islam, orchestrated by the joint forces, began from September 7 as his sister’s residence was first raided before his sister along with her husband were physically assaulted. Their mobile phones were seized and the two were then dragged along to Ratanpur, where Islam’s parents resided.
‘They beat my parents up and also tortured my sister-in-law,’ says Islam in his testimony to Odhikar.
‘Another military team raided my maternal aunt’s house at the Sadar Upazila in Munshiganj. They beat her with a stick, so severely that till date, she cannot move properly.’
The joint forces eventually picked Islam up from Puradisi village, where he went to visit his relative. He was blindfolded, handcuffed and taken to Dhaka after short stay at a make-shift army camp at Munshiganj. And then began the brutalities on Islam which saw him helplessly lying on the floor for several days with his hand and feet tied while the soles of his feet would swell up after the constant beatings.
‘The military men made me memorise the court confessions they had devised for me and threatened to have me killed in crossfire if I did not act accordingly.’
And then there is another day, Islam remembers, when some members of Rapid Action Battalion told him to perform his ablution because he was being prepared for ‘crossfire’.
‘I was blindfolded and taken into a car. As it started moving, I was told that if I made my confession according to their will at the court, I would be spared from the crossfire.
‘Although I was detained on September 8, 2007, the official record shows my arrest as being made on September 11, 2007,’ he says.
‘I had served five months in jail and am yet to receive any justice,’ says Islam.
IT WAS 5:00pm in the evening, on June 6, 2007, when SM Akhtar Faruk Mintu, while at a funeral, was told to report to the Shankarpur joint forces camp within 20 minutes of his receiving the message. Mintu, the chairman of Manaharpur Union Prishad in Jessore was soon picked up by the joint forces and interrogated for incidents he claims he wasn’t involved.
At around 12 midnight, an army official came to his room with a stick and beat him so badly that he was bruised and bleeding from his knees down to his soles. After beating him for about five to six minutes, the army person left only for another official to come in and kick him in his groin. Hot water was poured up his nostrils. His legs were broken, his toe nails ripped while boiled eggs were being forced into his anus and his finger nails were cracked with pliers.
When asking about his offence, an answer was not forthcoming as Mintu was left under a tree in a bazaar. He was able to notify a friend who took him to the hospital for treatment. His family have been on the receiving end of constant threats ever since then and are too afraid to file a case against the perpetrators.
ASSOCIATE Professor Selim Reza Newton was among the teachers who participated at the peaceful procession on August 21, 2007 protesting the military camp inside the Dhaka University.
‘Along with the journalism students of Dhaka University, I also participated at the meeting and procession protesting repression on February 14, 2007 violating the state of emergency rules,’ says the associate professor of mass communication and journalism with the Rajshahi University.
His apparent indiscretion saw Professor Newton, along with his three other co-workers, being sentenced to a two-year jail term. The four teachers had to serve the sentence behind bars until the government was compelled to pardon the teachers in the face of massive student protests and public criticism.
'HOW dare you make comments about the navy? Who would protect you if you were to be killed now?’ ASM Nasiruddin Elan, director of human rights coalition Odhikar quotes the director of naval intelligence in Dhaka as saying to him.
Two of the worst cases of violations during that time were the killings of Dulal in Char Fashion and Farid in Tajimuddin upazila, both in Bhola and in custody of the Navy.
Odhikar initiated a fact-finding investigation on the incidents and other human rights violations during the state of emergency in 2007 and Elan played an active role in it. As a result of the reports of the findings, Elan was taken to the naval headquarters on May 3, 2007.
After the navy intelligence director burst out at him, two other persons in plainclothes introduced as men from the DGFI began swearing at Elan.
‘They showed me some of Odhikar’s fact-finding reports and accused the organisation for anti-state activities and labelled me a traitor,’ Elan writes in his testimony.
‘I was warned about working in the middle of a state of emergency. I was asked to stop my human rights duties and advised to focus on agriculture. I was forced to sign on a written statement, having been threatened with death otherwise.’
He was then said to be taken to the DGFI custody but a navy staff came and locked him inside a room until 2:00pm. He was later asked to leave.
Before the scar fades
A university professor, a human rights activist, a student, an ethnic minority leader and a local government representative are among just a few of the cross section of the population to have been unlawfully detained, tortured and even killed in some cases during the state of emergency.
Odhikar, on June 27, organised an unprecedented event titled, ‘Tribunal against Torture’ where five victims and the wife of deceased Choles Ritchil testified to these incidents of torture. The event witnessed by some 120 guests discussed the legal opportunities to try the cases.
Ample opportunities for all the victims to file cases against the perpetrators, under the Penal Code, the Evidence Act and the Constitution of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh were also identified with the aid of legal experts. The Penal Code, for instance, has provisions for ‘Grievous Hurt’ and provides punishment for anyone who commits such physical abuse in order to extract a statement or confession.
‘Many senior politicians including the present Prime Minister have suffered mental or physical torture while in custody,’ says Barrister Moudud Ahmed, member of parliament and a standing committee member of Bangladesh Nationalist Party, who was detained for 18 months without trial.
‘Those who were responsible should be brought to the books and they should be tried under the law. The present government should immediately take steps to identify those at whose command, the torture had taken place.
‘In this regard, the role of former chief of army staff and the former chief adviser should be investigated and proceedings should also be brought out against them.’
The veteran lawyer, who is willing to fight the cases of torture by the law enforcement agencies during the state of emergency however, says he will not file a case on the torture inflicted upon him during his detention. ‘Who will be the lawyer?’ he replies when asked about his decision.
‘A review committee should be formed under the leadership of a retired justice of the Supreme Court with a secretary or joint secretary of the government and an eminent lawyer to review the torture,’ says Dr Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir, member of parliament and presidium member of the Bangladesh Awami League.
He has already announced that he will file cases against all those people involved in imprisoning him for 20 months on defamatory charges.
‘The people who have used state power to serve their own interests should be brought to books so that no one in future dares to usurp the democratic rights of people,’ he says.
According to legal experts, the first step to trying the perpetrators of torture has to come through filing independent cases.
‘The people will be encouraged to file complaints,’ says Alamgir.
‘The infringement of human rights through torture, detention and extrajudicial killings should be treated as a criminal offence and those responsible should be tried in accordance to the law,’ says advocate Sultana Kamal, former adviser to caretaker government and executive director of human rights organisation Ain O Salish Kendra.
‘A government which is there to bring the perpetrators of war crime to justice should also ensure that those who are perpetrators of torture at different times are brought to books,’ says CR Abrar, president of human rights coalition Odhikar, ‘otherwise, the culture of impunity will continue and the perpetrators will go scot-free.’
Human rights activists believe it is the ideal time for the government to prepare for investigating the tortures. They believe that with the state of emergency ceasing to exist, now that the people are speaking up and the incidents of torture and coercion are being documented, the government should be able to investigate the cases better.
‘The allegations of torture have come from different sections of people including the highest level of the government. We have heard of horrendous stories of torture that have taken place in the last couple of years,’ says Abrar.
He laments the fact that no rules have been framed as yet regarding the conduct of RAB. He also opines that interference of the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence on civil matters should be closed.
A High Court directive in 2003, issued after a petition filed by the Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST) against the government of Bangladesh, required the law enforcing agencies to inform a detainee’s relatives in the urban area within four hours of his arrest or within eight hours for those in the rural areas.
In addition the court ordered that someone close to the detainee be present to monitor his interrogation. A medical examination was also required prior to the detainee’s interrogation and after his arrest.
‘It is a landmark directive but it has not been implemented,’ regrets Abrar.
To pursue the investigation and trials, it is necessary that those who have been tortured bring in the complaints and that the police accept them, believe legal experts.
However, the limitations, Sultana observes, is the lack of clarity and partiality over the police investigations that involve tortures by the police itself and other law enforcing agencies. In this regard, Sultana believes an independent body to investigate the matter would have been most effective.
Though the government on July 9 passed the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) bill, Abrar is doubtful of its credibility and power.
‘It has not been given the jurisdiction to take action on its own. It can act as a moral force, provided it publicises its recommendations but there isn’t an explicit authority given to the commission to publish reports,’ he explains. ‘Thus the power of the commission has been weakened.’
The appointment of chairman and commissioners of the NHRC is not transparent, Abrar fears. ‘It could have been made through nomination from different sections like eminent citizens of the society.’
Presently a committee has been formed to recommend the names to the president but constitutionally, the president can only act on recommendations from the prime minister, he explains.
The government, however, has not yet taken a step to investigate the perpetrators of torture on civilians during the state of emergency.
‘I have not been asked to take any step,’ says Barrister Shafique Ahmed, the law minister when asked if his ministry is looking into the legal provision to try the tortures by the state agencies during the emergency.
When asked about the opportunities to try the perpetrators of torture, Shafique says, ‘I have not given any thought to it.’
‘The government has announced its intention to find out the authenticity of torture cases and take action against the perpetrators involved in the criminal activities but it has not formed a committee to review the matter yet,’ says Alamgir.
Justice denied
* Filing of independent torture cases inevitable to try the perpetrators: legal experts
* No rules framed on RAB’s conduct: CR Abrar
* DGFI’s interference on civil matters should be prohibited: CR Abrar
* High Court’s landmark directive on torture related issue unimplemented
* Power of National Human Rights Commission constrained
* Gov’t yet to take step to try perpetrators of custodial torture
It was at his nephew’s wedding where Ritchil would last be seen sporting a smile on his face to complement his relaxed demeanour. For on his way back from the event on that fateful afternoon of March 18, 2007,
he was abducted by joint forces from Kalibari in Mymensingh. What followed was a brutal and unprecedented instance of torture on Ritchil, a prominent ethnic minority leader, for his staunch opposition to the government’s inconsiderate decision to develop Eco Park at Madhupur, Tangail – a decision which would evict some 25,000 people belonging to the Garo ethnic community.
At the Kakraidh Army Camp, Ritchil was laid down with his eyes blindfolded and his hands and legs tied. His body soon bore innumerable marks of pricking while his limbs were fractured by the beating he was subjected to. The nails from his fingers and toes were pulled out and pliers were used to press his testicles while hot water was poured into his nostrils. Ritchil’s by then disjointed figure was then hung upside down as the merciless beating continued. He vomited a massive amount of blood and fainted several times until his last breath of life in the custody of the joint forces.
These are just some accounts of the horrific pain inflicted upon Ritchil, his wife, Sandha Rani Simsang testifies to the human rights coalition Odhikar. She had learnt of her husband’s tragic fate from a relative who had also been picked up by the joint forces along with Ritchil but was released afterwards.
When Ritchil’s dead body was handed to his family a day later on March 19, 2007, his eyes were taken out, his testicles removed, anus mutilated, the palms of both hands smashed and nails of three fingers of his right hand removed.
Sandha wanted to file a case but the officer in charge of the Madhupur Police Station only allowed her to file a general diary on March 20, 2007. NOT even the family members of Din Islam, a fourth year student at Dhaka University, were spared the gut-wrenching torture or humiliation, until his capture. Islam was among the listed suspects of instigating the student protests and the violence that had ensued, following the army-student brawl during a football match at the DU on August 20, 2007, that also resulted in an army vehicle being torched.
Two days after the unfortunate events at the University, Islam had left for his village home Munshiganj as the government imposed a curfew and declared that all colleges and universities were to be closed.
A hunt for Islam, orchestrated by the joint forces, began from September 7 as his sister’s residence was first raided before his sister along with her husband were physically assaulted. Their mobile phones were seized and the two were then dragged along to Ratanpur, where Islam’s parents resided.
‘They beat my parents up and also tortured my sister-in-law,’ says Islam in his testimony to Odhikar.
‘Another military team raided my maternal aunt’s house at the Sadar Upazila in Munshiganj. They beat her with a stick, so severely that till date, she cannot move properly.’
The joint forces eventually picked Islam up from Puradisi village, where he went to visit his relative. He was blindfolded, handcuffed and taken to Dhaka after short stay at a make-shift army camp at Munshiganj. And then began the brutalities on Islam which saw him helplessly lying on the floor for several days with his hand and feet tied while the soles of his feet would swell up after the constant beatings.
‘The military men made me memorise the court confessions they had devised for me and threatened to have me killed in crossfire if I did not act accordingly.’
And then there is another day, Islam remembers, when some members of Rapid Action Battalion told him to perform his ablution because he was being prepared for ‘crossfire’.
‘I was blindfolded and taken into a car. As it started moving, I was told that if I made my confession according to their will at the court, I would be spared from the crossfire.
‘Although I was detained on September 8, 2007, the official record shows my arrest as being made on September 11, 2007,’ he says.
‘I had served five months in jail and am yet to receive any justice,’ says Islam.
IT WAS 5:00pm in the evening, on June 6, 2007, when SM Akhtar Faruk Mintu, while at a funeral, was told to report to the Shankarpur joint forces camp within 20 minutes of his receiving the message. Mintu, the chairman of Manaharpur Union Prishad in Jessore was soon picked up by the joint forces and interrogated for incidents he claims he wasn’t involved.
At around 12 midnight, an army official came to his room with a stick and beat him so badly that he was bruised and bleeding from his knees down to his soles. After beating him for about five to six minutes, the army person left only for another official to come in and kick him in his groin. Hot water was poured up his nostrils. His legs were broken, his toe nails ripped while boiled eggs were being forced into his anus and his finger nails were cracked with pliers.
When asking about his offence, an answer was not forthcoming as Mintu was left under a tree in a bazaar. He was able to notify a friend who took him to the hospital for treatment. His family have been on the receiving end of constant threats ever since then and are too afraid to file a case against the perpetrators.
ASSOCIATE Professor Selim Reza Newton was among the teachers who participated at the peaceful procession on August 21, 2007 protesting the military camp inside the Dhaka University.
‘Along with the journalism students of Dhaka University, I also participated at the meeting and procession protesting repression on February 14, 2007 violating the state of emergency rules,’ says the associate professor of mass communication and journalism with the Rajshahi University.
His apparent indiscretion saw Professor Newton, along with his three other co-workers, being sentenced to a two-year jail term. The four teachers had to serve the sentence behind bars until the government was compelled to pardon the teachers in the face of massive student protests and public criticism.
'HOW dare you make comments about the navy? Who would protect you if you were to be killed now?’ ASM Nasiruddin Elan, director of human rights coalition Odhikar quotes the director of naval intelligence in Dhaka as saying to him.
Two of the worst cases of violations during that time were the killings of Dulal in Char Fashion and Farid in Tajimuddin upazila, both in Bhola and in custody of the Navy.
Odhikar initiated a fact-finding investigation on the incidents and other human rights violations during the state of emergency in 2007 and Elan played an active role in it. As a result of the reports of the findings, Elan was taken to the naval headquarters on May 3, 2007.
After the navy intelligence director burst out at him, two other persons in plainclothes introduced as men from the DGFI began swearing at Elan.
‘They showed me some of Odhikar’s fact-finding reports and accused the organisation for anti-state activities and labelled me a traitor,’ Elan writes in his testimony.
‘I was warned about working in the middle of a state of emergency. I was asked to stop my human rights duties and advised to focus on agriculture. I was forced to sign on a written statement, having been threatened with death otherwise.’
He was then said to be taken to the DGFI custody but a navy staff came and locked him inside a room until 2:00pm. He was later asked to leave.
Before the scar fades
A university professor, a human rights activist, a student, an ethnic minority leader and a local government representative are among just a few of the cross section of the population to have been unlawfully detained, tortured and even killed in some cases during the state of emergency.
Odhikar, on June 27, organised an unprecedented event titled, ‘Tribunal against Torture’ where five victims and the wife of deceased Choles Ritchil testified to these incidents of torture. The event witnessed by some 120 guests discussed the legal opportunities to try the cases.
Ample opportunities for all the victims to file cases against the perpetrators, under the Penal Code, the Evidence Act and the Constitution of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh were also identified with the aid of legal experts. The Penal Code, for instance, has provisions for ‘Grievous Hurt’ and provides punishment for anyone who commits such physical abuse in order to extract a statement or confession.
‘Many senior politicians including the present Prime Minister have suffered mental or physical torture while in custody,’ says Barrister Moudud Ahmed, member of parliament and a standing committee member of Bangladesh Nationalist Party, who was detained for 18 months without trial.
‘Those who were responsible should be brought to the books and they should be tried under the law. The present government should immediately take steps to identify those at whose command, the torture had taken place.
‘In this regard, the role of former chief of army staff and the former chief adviser should be investigated and proceedings should also be brought out against them.’
The veteran lawyer, who is willing to fight the cases of torture by the law enforcement agencies during the state of emergency however, says he will not file a case on the torture inflicted upon him during his detention. ‘Who will be the lawyer?’ he replies when asked about his decision.
‘A review committee should be formed under the leadership of a retired justice of the Supreme Court with a secretary or joint secretary of the government and an eminent lawyer to review the torture,’ says Dr Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir, member of parliament and presidium member of the Bangladesh Awami League.
He has already announced that he will file cases against all those people involved in imprisoning him for 20 months on defamatory charges.
‘The people who have used state power to serve their own interests should be brought to books so that no one in future dares to usurp the democratic rights of people,’ he says.
According to legal experts, the first step to trying the perpetrators of torture has to come through filing independent cases.
‘The people will be encouraged to file complaints,’ says Alamgir.
‘The infringement of human rights through torture, detention and extrajudicial killings should be treated as a criminal offence and those responsible should be tried in accordance to the law,’ says advocate Sultana Kamal, former adviser to caretaker government and executive director of human rights organisation Ain O Salish Kendra.
‘A government which is there to bring the perpetrators of war crime to justice should also ensure that those who are perpetrators of torture at different times are brought to books,’ says CR Abrar, president of human rights coalition Odhikar, ‘otherwise, the culture of impunity will continue and the perpetrators will go scot-free.’
Human rights activists believe it is the ideal time for the government to prepare for investigating the tortures. They believe that with the state of emergency ceasing to exist, now that the people are speaking up and the incidents of torture and coercion are being documented, the government should be able to investigate the cases better.
‘The allegations of torture have come from different sections of people including the highest level of the government. We have heard of horrendous stories of torture that have taken place in the last couple of years,’ says Abrar.
He laments the fact that no rules have been framed as yet regarding the conduct of RAB. He also opines that interference of the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence on civil matters should be closed.
A High Court directive in 2003, issued after a petition filed by the Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST) against the government of Bangladesh, required the law enforcing agencies to inform a detainee’s relatives in the urban area within four hours of his arrest or within eight hours for those in the rural areas.
In addition the court ordered that someone close to the detainee be present to monitor his interrogation. A medical examination was also required prior to the detainee’s interrogation and after his arrest.
‘It is a landmark directive but it has not been implemented,’ regrets Abrar.
To pursue the investigation and trials, it is necessary that those who have been tortured bring in the complaints and that the police accept them, believe legal experts.
However, the limitations, Sultana observes, is the lack of clarity and partiality over the police investigations that involve tortures by the police itself and other law enforcing agencies. In this regard, Sultana believes an independent body to investigate the matter would have been most effective.
Though the government on July 9 passed the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) bill, Abrar is doubtful of its credibility and power.
‘It has not been given the jurisdiction to take action on its own. It can act as a moral force, provided it publicises its recommendations but there isn’t an explicit authority given to the commission to publish reports,’ he explains. ‘Thus the power of the commission has been weakened.’
The appointment of chairman and commissioners of the NHRC is not transparent, Abrar fears. ‘It could have been made through nomination from different sections like eminent citizens of the society.’
Presently a committee has been formed to recommend the names to the president but constitutionally, the president can only act on recommendations from the prime minister, he explains.
The government, however, has not yet taken a step to investigate the perpetrators of torture on civilians during the state of emergency.
‘I have not been asked to take any step,’ says Barrister Shafique Ahmed, the law minister when asked if his ministry is looking into the legal provision to try the tortures by the state agencies during the emergency.
When asked about the opportunities to try the perpetrators of torture, Shafique says, ‘I have not given any thought to it.’
‘The government has announced its intention to find out the authenticity of torture cases and take action against the perpetrators involved in the criminal activities but it has not formed a committee to review the matter yet,’ says Alamgir.
Justice denied
* Filing of independent torture cases inevitable to try the perpetrators: legal experts
* No rules framed on RAB’s conduct: CR Abrar
* DGFI’s interference on civil matters should be prohibited: CR Abrar
* High Court’s landmark directive on torture related issue unimplemented
* Power of National Human Rights Commission constrained
* Gov’t yet to take step to try perpetrators of custodial torture
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