A Fresh Look at the Long, Dark Plot: Mufti Hannan, Torture, and Daily Star

About ten months into the current Awami League government’s tenure, Daily Star produced this sensational investigative report. In blaring headlines, it pinned the blame for the August 21 assassination attempt on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Tarique Rahman (referred to as Hawa Bhaban bigwig in report), and some other BNP leaders. The assassination attempt was billed as a joint venture between BNP and an Islamic fundamentalist organization.

The timing of this report was extremely significant. Two years ago, it was quite common to hear predictions about BNP breaking apart or an end to the Zia-brand of politics. Rovian dreams of Awami League’s permanent majority was quite du jour. BNP was scheduled to have its annual party council at the end of 2009. A feasible connection between Tarique Rahman and a murder charge would not only put BNP’s leadership transition into question, it would have given the government a huge bargaining chip against the largest opposition party.

Julfikar Ali Manik claimed that a “highly privileged document” from “a top accused of the grenade carnage” was the source of this information. This document finally went public on April 7 2011, when Mufti Hannan was brought in front of a magistrate to give a confessional statement that mirrored exactly what the 2009 Daily Star report had claimed. Important to note, Hannan had already confessed to his own involvement in this crime back in 2007. This additional information was only to pave the way for Tarique Rahman and other BNP leaders to be also indicted for the same crime.

Fast forward to September 27, less than a week ago. Having involved everyone the government wanted to involve, the case starts. Mufti Hanna submits a document stating that his supposed confessions were extracted by torture. How does Daily Star cover the story?

It buries the retraction deep into the story. Which is funny, because the news that the government allegedly extracted a confession from a prisoner in its custody, only so that it can frame opposition politicians, ought to be big news. Amar Desh has reproduced the entire petition, including description of the torture. Eyebrows have been raised for less.

The next day, BNP, quiet understandably, held a press conference claiming vindication and pressing for the name of its leaders to be dropped from the charge-sheet. Again, in the headline, Daily Star made no reference to the alleged retraction. A casual reader glancing at the headline, as I did, would have probably thought it referred to some garden-variety claim made in some rally somewhere, and missed this entire back story.

In an incredible counterattack, to make sure the retraction of the confession was downplayed, Daily Star printed a competing news article claiming that Hannan’s legal petition had no standing. The next day, it got eminent jurist State Minister for Law Quamrul Islam to say the same thing.

Let us look at the legal claims that a confession given under Section 164 cannot be retracted. Section 164 (3) of Bangladesh’s Criminal Procedure Code states:

(3) A Magistrate shall, before recording any such confession, explain
to the person making it that he is not bound to make confession and that if he does
so it may be used as evidence against him and no magistrate shall record any such
confession unless, upon questioning the person making it, he has reason to believe
that it was made voluntarily; and, when he records any confession, he shall make a
memorandum at the foot of such record to the following effect :-
“I have explained to (name) that he is not bound to make a confession and that, if he
does so any confession he may this confession was voluntarily made. I was taken in
my presence and hearing, an was read over to the person making it and admitted by
him to be correct, and it contains a full and true account of the statement made by
him.
(Signed) A. B.,
Magistrate.”

This makes abundantly clear that voluntariness is at the heart of any confession obtained through Section 164. The fact that confessions extracted through torture are illegal are no surprise; the courts of Bangladesh have been very exact in this regard. Our Supreme Court has explicitly held, in State Vs. Abul Hashem, 3 MLR (HCD) 30, that a magistrate cannot record a confession that is extracted through torture. And then, just to make sure, the magistrate has to affix his own signature at the end, verifying that the statement was not produced through torture.

What factors should a court look at to see whether there were any indication of torture or general police coercion? One very important factor is whether the confession is extracted after being in police custody, or whether there is any possibility that the witness may be taken back to remand right after his interaction with the magistrate. In State Vs. Farid Karim, 8 BLT(AD) 87, the fact that the accused was in police custody for unexplained two days before the police produced him for making confessional statement, was one of the important factors in the confessional statement being found involuntary.

Has Mufti Hanna been taken in custody, also called remand, often? According to a very desultory Google search, he has been remanded for 7 days on September 6, 2009, 5 days on September 12, 2009, 3 days on September 23, 2009, for 7 days on December 3, 2009, for 3 days on July 18, 2010, 2 days on August 22, 2010, and 5 days on December 27, 2010 . After making the statement, he was remanded for 1 day on April 26, 2011. That makes for 32 days of remand, and potential police torture, before and  1 day after making this confession statement. During the remand hearing held on August 22, 2010, Hannan tallied the number of days for which he had been in remand at 369 days over the past five years, and begged the magistrate not to grant any more remand. Remand, though, was granted.

Hanna was in police remand for half of September 2009. Presumably, it was this during this period that the document which became Julfikar Manik’s investigative piece was produced.

Even if this confession was made through torture, should we care if such confession statements cannot be retracted? Yes. There exists a plethora of judicial opinion, specifically State Vs. Lalu Miah and another, 39 DLR(AD) 11, which holds that any allegation of torture which forced the confessional statement, is to be treated the same as a petition for the withdrawal of the statement. Now that Hannan has claimed torture in police custody, the judge must decide whether his earlier confessional statement is credible. So the claim that there is no legal basis for withdrawing his confessional statement is without merit.

So why is this about the Daily Star’s coverage of this whole issue, rather than the much serious issue of torture of a prisoner in government custody, in a conspiracy to subvert the opposition political forces. There are two main reasons. The first is that we hear about these human rights violations through newspapers, and especially the Daily Star. If not for the Daily Star, Limon would be rotting in a jail cell or dead by now. So, when the newspaper itself decided to obfuscate the story and shift the focus to legal technicalities like getting permission from jail authorities instead of the much bigger and more serious allegation of torture in government custody, it renders hollow its supposed commitment to human rights and reinforces the suspicion that the news printed in Daily Star is slanted to serve a particular agenda.

Secondly, torture does not occur in a vacuum. No torture can flourish in a society unless it decides, as a whole, that certain individuals or classes of individuals are exempt from the protection of law. It very much seems like Daily Star has made such a finding for Mufti Hannan, which makes the paper, in general, and the relevant individuals, in particular, accomplices to torture. And the insidious thing is that the class of people who can be tortured tends to grow and metastasize at unbelievable speed. You may think that it only includes people with beards, and then suddenly, it also includes young university students out at night. 

This saga is by no means over. While there is an aspect to it that has a purely partisan aspect, this incident also serves as a reflection of the values that we hold as a society. And those values are fraying fast.

 

This is a murder committed by Judges Shamsuddin Chowdhury Manik and Gobindo Thakur

Former Deputy Attorney General M U Ahmed died today under police custody in a city hospital. On August 11, 2011, at the order of high court judges Shamsuddin Chowdhury Manik and Gobinda Thakur, he was arrested and tortured by police until he suffered from a massive myocardial Infarction.

It is evident that everybody living in side Bangladesh is afraid of calling a spade a spade. An environment of fear, extreme fear has been created by these two thuggish judges in Bangladesh. Last in their list of atrocities in the murder of ex Deputy Attorney General Advocate M U Ahmed. This is plain simple muder commited at the beheast of two blindly partisan judges by a brutal murderous police force of Awami League government.

 

Joynal Abedin Faruq

If you are one of the few people who haven’t seen the pictures, see them here.

First we heard that Faruq was bad-mouthing the police.

Then we heard that he was assaulting the police.

A Member of Parliament is brutalized in front of the Parliament building, and yet the Speaker won’t let opposition MPs speak on this issue.

And today, our honorable Prime Minister told us he was vandalizing vehicles.

Lies, lies, and lies. How can there be normal politics in a country when one side is led by a habitual liar?

We all understand and expect political spin. But not lies.

And, we need to make a law that no members of political parties or student political organizations, whether JCD, BCL, ICS, or others, can join BCS, police, army, or any other government service. They cannot work as government teachers, doctors, or lawyers.

We need to start looking for solutions to the underlying structural problems. Outrage and indignation can only take us so far.

 

If he has a heart attack…

… everyone will be happy.  The government will be happy because they won’t have to prove anything, hold any trial, meet any international standard, answer to annoying human rights activisists foreigners.  The war crimes trial movement will be happy — they will celebrate the death of a hated enemy.  His rivals in Chittagong BNP will be happy.  BNP leadership will be happy — he has a large following, and a massive funeral will be quite a showdown. 

Rumi is a doctor.  He can tell us the odds of a 63 years old with three previous heart attacks and has several cardiac stents suffering a fatal attack under these conditions. 

What did you say?  Fair trial?  That’s so passe man, Shahrier Kabir told the Economist: We should set our own standards.

Death in custody is our standard.  What’s so unfair about that? 

Peace will reign in deezeetaal Bangladesh when he is dead.

 

We are against torture. But this person is an exception.

Long time member of Bangladesh parliament Mr Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury has recently been arrested. Although government minister’s were promising his arrest for his alleged involvement in committing atrocities against Bangladeshi freedom fighters during 1971 war of Independence, he was arrested on an accusation of arson in Dhaka during the day of General strike last month. Interestingly,  Mr Chowdhury was not even in Dhaka when the  alleged arson took place in Dhaka. In a breach of routine legal practice, after arrest Mr Chowdhury was not produced before the court. He was taken to an undisclosed location ( Many suspected it to be a police station inside the Military Garrison in Dhaka)  and 12 hours later when he was produced before court, Mr Chowdhury reportedly was bleeding, limping. In court he accused of inhumane torture on hm. After the court approved five days to grill him and when he returned to the court, the court even did not allow to let the accused Mr Chowdhury come before the court. So totally disconnected from family, lawyers, political colleague– there is no was to know how much more  torture Mr Chowdhury endured.  His daughter and wife called a press conference and pointedly asked the government, where the blood, those were seen on Mr Chowdhury’s ears and face, came from.

 

Almost every body ( if not absolutely everybody) remained silent on this torture accusation as the victim of this torture was a bad guy. He is a political leader accused of crimes against humanity against our side during our war of independence.  So as he committed very grave crimes like war crimes, no one should speak out against torture on him. If one does, she/ he is also a rajakar ( Collaborator) if not war criminal. We are against torture. But this guy is an exception.

*************************************************

 

Few years ago, this comment was made on this blog post…

[ On inquiry, I came to know that the commenter was Fabia Mim Mamoon, teenage daughter of Gias Uuddin Al Mamun]

 

“out of sight out of mind” – this is so true.
the last post was made on june 20 2007. Ever wonder where the man is now? and in what condition?

All the politicians sent to custody after 1/11 are out. Well most of them. Whatever he is he cannot be the most corrupted person in Bangladesh. There are rapists murderers who are living peacefully in our society among us.

Even for a second if i assume that he was, the way he was tortured ..no one else was ..
he was actually arrested on 30th Jan, 2007 but was shown arrested from 26th March. During this time  he was hidden. No one knew where he was, his family of four passed the most brutal time. He has a wife, two daughters who were 3 and 15 then and a son aged 9. They knew he died. The family was interrogated again and again. The integrators would jump into the premises from all sides of the house at midnight and would wake everyone up and ask the same questions repeatedly. Once it was also seen that one of the interrogators with a gun in his hand had moved the youngest child’s hair from her face when she was asleep. On 26th March night, the family had gone to sleep. There was a knock on the master bedroom door around 3am, one of the house staff said “they are here”. Slowly everyone started coming out of their rooms, the voices of many men had awakened them. Everyone was dumped in to Mamoon’s elder daughter’s room and they began searching the house, all of a sudden a man walked into the room, the man was unknown but when he called out Mamoon’s daughter’s name everyone turned around and looked at him. The face was unknown but the voice was known. He then bursted into tears and his elder daughter ran and hugged him tight while his wife fainted and the other two children could not believe what they were looking at. After sometime Mamoon and his wife were called into their room where the law men have opened the stitches of a couch and put in the gun inside te couch in front of everyone’s eyes and then took it out as an illegal gun was discovered. A case was placed against him.

Slowly the truth started coming out and he started telling his family how he was tortured :-
1. on the very 1st night all his nails were taken with a plus.
2. he was given electric shocks at every part of his body.
3. he was put into mock cross fire.
4. he was tied and pushed into a lake and taken out when they knew he wouldn’t be able to take it anymore.
5. he was placed in a small box were there is hardly any space to move and a high voltage bulb was placed on top.
6. knowing that he had brain hemorrhage in the pat, he was brutally kicked until lather came out of his mouth.
7. they even made him sign on random blank papers.

Maybe he did have “ill gotten money” but always remember television n papers love to spice up things and they add lots of “zeros”.
– The house in gazipur that is said to be his is actually on 5 katha land and really doesn’t belong to him. His wife inherited that from her grandfather.
– He owes huge amount of loans to different banks, he had taken those to set up his factories. There are a total of 5000 workers working in the factories now, all the factories prohibit child labour and each of the workers family consists of 4 members on an average, that makes it 5000*4 = 20 000.
– all of the property values that have been shown are CURRENT values. value of property, fdrs were not shown as they were at the time of purchasing.

His middle child (son) is mentally disturbed. He is not being able to cope up at school ever since …. His academics .. personal behavior ..everything is going down ..

His younger daughter misses her dad so much she regularly draws pictures of him and her together. It’s so sad that she couldn’t even understand the term “dad” properly ..before that he was taken away ..

There are lot more that can be said ..
People please do not believe in whatever people say. Try to look up. there are lot of things we are not aware of. If this is the story of 1 man, imagine how many men and families were harassed.

 

Almost every body ( if not absolutely everybody) remained silent on this torture accusation as the victim of this torture was a bad guy. He is a corrupt man accused of massive corruption.  So as he committed very grave crimes like grand scale theft, no one should speak out against torture on him. If anyone does, she/he is also a corrupt criminal. We are against torture. But this guy is an exception.

 

*********************************************************

 

Then before that there was the Freak Show of Torture. on the son the a former President, decorated General of our war of Independence and whose mother is three times PM and one of the two major political leaders of the country.  That torture was totally endorsed by our leading Dailies who tried their best to undermine the fractured back caused by the torture as ailment of pinched nerve.

 

Almost every body ( if not absolutely everybody) remained silent on this torture accusation as the victim of this torture was a bad guy. Many folks applauded this torture. He is a corrupt man accused of massive corruption and very ruthless bad governance.  So as he committed very grave crimes no one should speak out against torture on him. If anyone does, she/he is also a corrupt criminal. We are against torture. But this guy is an exception.

*********************************************************

 

Recently a newspaper editor dared to become outspoken against the atrocities of the government and published some corruption allegation. Hell broke loose on him. His crime— he dared speak against the government and tried to desecrate the halo around our Prime Minister and the crown prince, her son.

 

Almost every body ( if not absolutely everybody) remained silent on this torture accusation as the victim of this torture was a bad guy. Many folks applauded this torture. He is a bad man accused of inflicting bad things on our beloved prime minister and her son.  So as he committed very grave crimes no one should speak out against torture on him. If anyone does, she/he is also a very bad guy. We are against torture. But this guy is an exception.

 

 

*****************************************

 

Very recently the President of the Garments Workers Unity Forum Moshrefa Mishu was arrested and tortured in police remand in all possible way sort of physical beating. As a result, on her way to a second remand, he fell severely ill, and had to be hospitalized immediately.

 

Almost every body ( with rare exception of two people) remained silent on this torture accusation as the victim of this torture was a bad person. She was conspiring to ruin our Garments industry which is the backbone of our economy.  So as she committed very grave crimes no one should speak out against torture on her. If anyone does, she/he is also part of the conspiracy to destroy our economy. We are against torture. But this person is an exception.

 

Bangladesh’s Opposition Leader is being Evicted from her house

Photo, courtesy of the Daily Star.

National leader of Bangladesh, late Presiedent Ziaur rahman lived in this house from 1972 till his death in 1981. This was a house he was allotted as the deputy chief of staff of Bangladesh Army.

After his death, the then elected government’s cabinet decided to give the property to the widow of the slain president in a 99 year lease. That widow is now our leader of opposition.

Coming back to power for the second time, PM Sheikh Hasina seemed hellbent in evicting the opposition leader from that house and then demolishing this residence of late President Ziaur rahman.

A legal battle is underway in the court in this regard. A hearing is scheduled to take place in the Supreme court on Nov 29th.

However government looks like too impatient to wait till final resolution of the legal process.

So far from the sketchy news coming out of Dhaka cantonment where Mrs Zia leaves, the followng incidences have been confirmed.

1. Military PR wing issued a press release that opposition leader is leaving the house on her own. However the opposition leader, through her press secretery has denied any such claim by the military.

2. All the staff of the opposition leader residence have been rounded up and taken to police station.

3. Police and military trucks have taken position in front of opposition leader’s house.

4. Telephone line has been disconnected from the residence of opoosition leader.

5. Cantonment officials went to opposition leader’s house to take over the property.

6. Police and paramilitary Rapid Action Battalion forces has entered opoosition leader’s house and they were seen at the roof.

7. Opposition leader is being debied to meet her lawyers and political collegaue.

8. Opposition chief whip and other colleague of the opposition leader were barred from entering cantonment.

9. Law enforcement agency members were reported to be using hand mikes instructing the opposition leader to evacuate the home and promising stern action otherwise.

10. Opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s General Secretary, in a press briefing, informed that the opposition leader is under house arrest at this time.

11. Sporadic clashed with opposition activists and law men are being reported from different parts of the country.

12. An attempted rally from opposition main office was dispersed by the police.

13. Lawyers of Mrs Zia, the opposition leader, went to meet the Chief justice in his residence begging for a legal remedy.

[ UPDATE 12 NOON BDT]

14. Apparently there is a media blackout about the events regarding the residence of the opposition leader.
15. The main opposition party called a down to dusk general strike for tomorrow.

[ UPDATE]

In the evening, after daylong siege, Law enforcement men breaks open Opposition leader Khaleda Zia’s home, breaks open into her bedroom, indiscriminately beats her staff and family members, dragging her out of her bedroom and escorts her out of her home for 40 years.

Later in the evening in a press conference, Mrs Zia talked to the nation of her ordeal.

 

Prime Minister Hasina’s Bangladesh.

Yes, this is our Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Bangladesh.  And this is the video footage …

I did not want to post this gruesome video in this blog. This video shows how an elected representative of people, a local government leader, Upazilla Chairman ( representing the people of one of total 460 Upazilla in Bangladesh), Mr Sanaullah Noor ( Nickname Babu), was chopped to death.

The event developed in this way. A mid-level opposition leader was supposed to visit the specific upazilla and this Upazilla Chairman, belonging to the opposition party, brought out a welcome procession with 15-20 of his supporters in the main thoroughfare of the Upazilla. Suddenly, in broad daylight, in front of thousands of onlookers and dozens of jurnalists, few dozens of activists of ruling party, armed with hatchets, axes, sticks, knives attacked the  procession led by Mr Noor. As the procession dispersed under attack the attackers converged on the leader, Mr. Noor. As shown in this video, the attackers kept on beating Mr Noor, even when he was down in the street, bleeding profusely and begging for life. Some of teh attackers took knives to cut the arteries at both arms and the tendons of both legs.

The group was led by Mr Zakir Hossain ( fade jeans, light shirt with a stick at hand), a leader of Awami League local chapter. At some point he is seen chasing a journalist attempting to take photos of the killing. nearly a dozen of journalists were brutally beaten during this event and some are still in hospital with grievous injuries.

 

 

Shamsher Mobin Chowdhury

Mr Shamsher Mobin Chowdhury is an injured freedom fighter, a wounded veteran of our war of independence. He fought our liberation war as an Army Captain and lost his leg. He was awarded second highest gallantry award for living war heroes, Bir Bikram. Mr. Chowdhury retired from active military duty January of 1975 and joined foreign services, where he climbed up the ladder by means of his efficiency as a diplomat. He served as Bangladesh ambassador to different countries including USA, Germany, Vietnam etc. He also served five years as Foreign Secretary of Bangladesh.

Mr. Shamsher M Chowdhury and the likes of him are welcome new face of BNP. This is sharp contrast to the faces of Nizami or Mujahid flanking BNP leader Khaleda.

 

Where is city councilor Chowdhury Alam?

On June 25, Friday elected Councillor Dhaka City Corporation and opposition leader, Mr Chowdhury Alam was arrested by the police. Per newspaper report, law enforcement men picked him up on his way home from opposition party office.  Since then he is totally untraceable. Nobody, neither Mr Alam’s family members  nor his lawyer/ colleague at Dhaka City Corporation have any knowledge of his whereabouts.

Mr Alam’s family members were in a press conference today along with the elected mayor of Dhaka City corporation. In the press conference, the family expressed their worry about the worst. Over the last year, law enforcement agency members of this government were alleged to have committed many premeditated murders. Bodies of people taken away by law enforcement men are being found buried underground, dumped into marshes etc.

When an arrest is made by the government, by law, the person being arrested needs to be produced before court within certain time. And law enforcement agencies ought to keep family informed of the whereabouts of the person being arrested. Nothing happened in Mr Alam’s case. His family has no clue where Mr. Alam was taken and why he is being detained.  No agency in the government is accepting the responsibility of this arrest. It is very unclear what happened to Mr Alam. But it is very destabilizing to see such a powerful government with such an overwhelming parliamentary majority resort to undemocratic means of kidnapping opposition elected representatives  and detaining them  in undisclosed locations. We certainly hope Mr. Alam did not have to face the consequences his family is most worried about.

Interestingly, the Mayor of Dhaka city raised the concern in a press conference in the afternoon. And late in the evening around 830 PM, several hours after government office closure, the government controlled Anti Corruption Commission came up with a corruption case against the Mayor.

Unfortunately this is only the 18th month for the current ruling party’s ascension to power.

 

Bangladesh Awami League Government Fails in The First Test of Democracy

Today a daylong general strike was called by the main opposition party in Bangladesh. This is first such event in 3 1/2 years. The opposition party BNP had laid out the strike plan last month in protest of certain issues they have pointed out as government failure.

The general strike ( Hartal) is not a very popular mode of protest in Bangladesh. Yet opposition parties resort to this tactic more often than other means as they don’t find the alternatives to hartal as biting. One reason the opposition resort to this sort of general strike is because hartals make the government feel insecure and vulnerable. For this same reason current ruling party Awami League resorted to 303 ( nearly a year) days of general strike since 1991. Otherwise a so called successful hartal is never a testament to opposition’s popularity.

Hartals are now more a test of the mindset of the government than anything else. Accordingly today’s hartal was an opportunity for the government to show how tolerant and democratic they are and at the same time it was a tool of the opposition to trap the government into exposing the government’s intolerant fascistic mindset ( if there is any).

Clearly the following photo assay shows heavy handed repressive acts of the government in a day which otherwise would have been a day of peaceful non-violent exercise of democratic right.

 

16th June black day

On 16 June 1974, the Awami League government led fathers of PM and several other senior ministers and MPS of current government, decided to shut down all print media except two government run newspapers. In addition government took over the ownership of two leading but privately owned newspapers ( Daily Ittefaq and Daily Observer) and kept them running as government mouth pieces.

Since then 16th June used to be observed by journalists in Bangladesh as black day as thousands of jouralists lost their livelihood instantly. However as the years passed, younger generation jouranalists choose to forget 16th June evets and 16th June is no longer a black days. At least if yu scan the mainstream media in Bangladesh, you hardly seeany mention of it.

Media definitely has its bias towards Awami League and it is less to AL’s credit than to BNPs fault. BNP leadership or policy makers never made it a priority to take smart steps and befriend junior media personnel. Hence smaller acts of aggression on Media by BNP governments get much more media atention than bigger attacks by successive Awami League governments. Events like a police officers fist fight with a elderly photojournalist, or arrest of a stinger etc attarcts disproportionately more protests/ criticism from media than large scale crackdown by Awami League governments.

There is no dobt that if one looks deep into the facts, media suffered much more at the hands of Awami League than BNP. Even when Awami League was in opposition, media was not immune from acts of aggression by Awami League leadership.

Not taking lesson from 16th june events, when Awami came back to power next time, it decided to shut down four very popular governmet run weeklies and dailies. Although financial problems was shown by the government as the main reason, it was very clear that the closure was done simply out of vengence on the journalists working on those outlets. PM had to settle some score with Nirmal Sen for his famous headline, ‘Swavik Mrittur Guarantee Chai…’ or Shahadat Chowdhury for being supportive of popular President Ziaur Rahman. And during the time it was closed, both weekly Bichitra and Daily Doinik Bangla was very much financially viable sec to Bichitra’s popularity and government ad revenue to Doinik Bangla. After closing down veryu popular barnd Bichitra, PM sister Sheikh Rehana was given the ownership of the name and she ran an abysmal weekly on the same name before killing it.

When 3rd Awami League government came back to power, in addition to print media, it had to deal with electronic media. Keeping up its tradition, government imposed a harsh gag on all electronc media, preventing them from iviting guests critical of government’s acts. In quick succession it closed down two TV channels and one newspaper, arrested one editor and is currently torturing him under custody.

In 18 months of its rule, government also did not hesitate impose draconian rules like blocking Youtube, esnipe, facebbok.

 

Bangladesh government tortures dissident editor

Last week Police raided vernacular Daily Amar Desh, arrested its editor along with some senior journalists, locked up the office and the press that publishes the newspaper. Police cited some procedural flaws as reason for closing down the newspaper. Any reasonable reader will understand, if there was any procedural flaw it was government’s for not processing the application to change the publisher in reasonable time. Several media personnel and observers have stated that there was no flaw on Amardesh’s side and this was confirmed by summery dismissal of this government decision by the high court.

However although the newspaper is being republished now under high court order, there is fear among its journalists that government is trying to force a change of ownership and turn it into a meek pro government mouthpiece. As a part of the strategy, the editor and owner of the newspaper remains under police custody. District level judicial courts have allowed the government to take Mr Rahman away from Dhaka’s central Jail to undisclosed location for questioning. This kind of arrangement is known as ‘remand’ in Bangladesh. Political leaders belonging to all parties have confirmed in the past that remand means state conducted torture. It is very clear that if police has to ask Mr Rahman any question they can do it as much as they want to do it Dhaka central jail. The massive structure has facilities to conduct such interrogation. But the lower court judges, clearly under pressure, allowed the police to take him to an undisclosed location.

And Mr Rahman has confirmed the tortures on him while he was produced before court before a second phase of his total 12 days remand began. Mr Rahman, told the court under oath that he was taken to a place in Dhaka Military Garrison where he was first undressed. Then few unidentified person started beating him till he became unconscious. He told the court that no relevant question was ever asked to him. The partisan lawyer working on behalf of the government, when asked by media about the torture, replied that as Mr Rahman was able to walk and talk in the court, proving that it meant he was not tortured!

Mr Mahmudur Rahman’s plight confirms what the political observers in Bangladesh was fearing over the last year. Current Bangladesh government has a very intolerant attitude towards media. After several very bold reporting of corruption and double standard by this government was published in Daily Amardesh, most veteran political analysts in Bangladesh knew that this Awami League government will not tolerate this sort of reporting. Mr Shafiq Rehman is a legendary journalists, whose weekly, Jaijaidin, was banned twice by the military dictator Ershad in 80s, and who had to flee the country for fear of persecution by the dictator. He recently wrote, after the Amar Desh event, that he learnt that this government had two priorities; evicting opposition leader Khaleda Zia from her home and arresting editor Mr Mahmudur Rahman for daring to expose high level corruption in the government.

From the acts of shutting down TV channels for showing footage of rigging in bye election, closing down newspaper for publishing government documents accusing Prime Minister’s son of corruption and putting a tight gag on TV talk shows, it is clear that this elected government has decided to run a rule of fear and suppression. This is very worrisome. But more worrisome is the fact that the government started all this within only 18 months of its rule. That means worse days await Bangladesh in the upcoming 3 1/2 years.

 

The Second Coming?

“Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;”

Prof. Khaliquzzaman Elias intoned as we sat listening to his lecture, mesmerized as always. He then gave his trademark gentle smile and explained: “The centre cannot hold – Khaleda Zia can not control her government.” This was 2002, and Dr. B. Chowdhury was still the President of Bangladesh.

This poem again flashed through my mind as I was reading the latest court proceedings regarding Mahmudur Rahman. First arrested on the pretext of a fraud case; he quickly got bail in that case the very next day. However, the government has quickly filed three other cases against him, all non-bailable in nature. One accuses him of assaulting a police officer, although it is probably common knowledge who assaults whom when the police arrest someone in Bangladesh. Another accuses him of plotting sedition against the Caretaker Government headed by Iajuddin Ahmed, by secretly organizing a meeting of bureaucrats at his business office. Does this mean that the Awami League government finally admits that the Iajuddin-backed first Caretaker government was not pro-BNP, as it routinely alleges? Are they now saying that the first Caretaker Government was so extremely anti-BNP that a group of supposed BNP sympathizers were meeting to plan seditious activities against it? The last charge is that he used the printing press of Amar Desh to print leaflets for Hizbut Tahrir, a banned fundamentalist organization. Suffice to say, in the years of propaganda against Mahmudur Rahman, this allegation has never previously been raised against him.

The closure of Amar Desh and the arrest of Mahmudur Rahman has seen almost universal condemnation across Bangladesh (with only the strong, patriotic voice of Mozammel Babu raised in its favor). Instead of taking some steps to rectify its errors, Sheikh Hasina has doubled down on her bet, filing additional cases against Mahmudur Rahman and taking him into twelve days (so far) of remand.

Remand, that most dreaded word in Bangladeshi discussion. Crossfire? Death awaits us all at the end; what matter if the black-garbed denizens hastening us towards it are oath-bound to be our protectors? But remand, with its attendant physical and mental torture, is arguably worse. If your spine is not broken, if you are not slapped and prodded with hot iron rods, if you do not have your most private indignities recorded and widely distributed the next day, you are left with the memories of those moments when one’s personal dignity being stripped away and discarded.

By plotting this attack on Mahmudur Rahman, Awami league is in uncharted waters, just as it was with the closure of a print newspaper, a phenomenon not witnessed in post-Ershad Bangladesh (how fitting then, that Ershad is a partner of the coalition currently in power). Abdus Salam Pintu was already in jail when this government came to power, and Lutfazzaman Babar has also been jailed in relation to charges filed by the last Caretaker Government (though in reality, Babar is paying the price for foiling Abdul Jalil’s April 30 trump card). However, Mahmudur Rahman is the first opposition figure of national stature whom Hasina has sought to have jailed by inventing charges against him. Whereas the BNP government introduced crossfire and the last Caretaker government made commonplace the practice of torture of dissenting individuals in custody, this Government has connected the dots and completed the triangle, with a fired-up cadre of lawyers ready to condemn suspects to torture, and a compliant judiciary that seems to have forgotten their vows to defend the Constitution. Meanwhile, let it be noted that not a single discussion notice about this arrest was allowed in Parliament; perhaps that will be remembered the next time someone chooses to lecture BNP about joining the Parliament.

The thing about these abuses of power is that they are just so tempting. Like mangos and chomchoms, it is difficult to stop after just one, no matter the initial resolve. If a troublesome editor can be silenced in this way, why not a lawyer who is vocal about the human rights of those languishing in jail under this Government? And why not that scary-looking bearded man, even though there is no evidence against him? I have no illusions about the deep reservoirs of tribalism and blood lust in our collective psyche (remember when crossfire made RAB national heros and little kids were dressing up in all black?); I merely hope that there are still left the sufficient number of good men and women, both inside and outside the Government, to prevent things from deteriorating to an irreversible stage. Meanwhile, all those cries about the return of BAKSAL do not strike a chord in the young, first-time voters who are popularly thought to have been the backbone of Awami league’s last electoral victory; I would surmise most in that group do not know what this dreaded acronym stands for. The hope is that they can continue in this blessed ignorance, and never have to find out.

 

The True Face of 1/11

The latest victim of the Caretaker Government passed away on January 7, 2010. B. M. Bakir Hossain was arrested by the Caretaker Government on February 2007. Like most other BNP-leaning political figures, the CTG pressed the two standard cases against him: one by the Anti-Corruption Commission, alleging the amassing illegal wealth, and the other by the National Revenue Board, alleging non-payment of tax. Bakir Hossain was granted bail for the Anti Corruption Commission case. The tax case was quashed by the High Court. However, the government opposed this move by apealing through the Attorney General in the Appellate Division, not once, not twice, but four times, to ensure he could not be set free. Unfortunately, Bakir Hossain’s party affiliation cost him his life. The Appellate Division granted Awami League leader Pankaj Devnath bail on exactly the same case in which it denied Bakir Hossain bail.

The last days of his life are a sad indictment on both our prison administration and the state of our healthcare facilities. On 22 December, Bakir Hossain fell ill at arond 11 AM. He was taken to the Prison Hospital, where he lost fell unconscious. After dilly-dallying for five hourse, the prison administration agreed to transfer him to Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH). However, the DMCH authorities refused to admit him. He was then rushed to BSMMU Hospital. However, there was no empty spot at the Intensive Care Unit at BSMMU. He was then taken to BIRDEM Hospital. Then, at 2 AM, he was taken to a private clinic at Lalmatia. Finally, two days after his illness, a spot was found for him at the Intensive Care Unit of Apollo Hospital. It was finally at Apollo Hospital that he passed away.

How can a man who is not convicted of anything be kept in the prison for three years? How can the Appellate Division justify denying him bail even after four hearings? When the last hearing took place, on 4 January 2010, Bakir Hossain was already on life-support at ICU. Yet, the Appellate Division did not grant him the bail, even then, that could have saved his life, and instead set January 11 for the date of the next hearing. On January 11, Bakir Hossain was already dead. The Attorney General had the decency not to show his face in the courtroom when this case came up. As Barrister Rafiqul Huq, Bakir Hossain’s counsel, told the Court, his client did not need bail from this Honourable Court any longer, Allah had given Bakir Hossain permanent bail.  

This news was a sickening reminder of the oppressive days of 2007-2008 when the Moeenuddin and Fakhruddin’s Caretaker Government kept the citizens of Bangladesh deprived of our basic rights. Three years on, as the true nature of the CTG becomes more and more apparent, its defenders are all curiously muted. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who famously claimed that the Caretaker Government was a creation of Awam League, has now taken to claiming that BNP was solely responsible for bringing about the Caretaker Government. The few public defenders of the Caretaker Government had to publish articles like this, claiming that BNP is “evil,” and attempting to dress the personnel changes instituted by that government as major reform. No mention is made of the torture and the extortion, the suffering, and the physical and emotional toll exacted on the people of our country: that would take too long to explain away.

Therefore, three years later, let us take a trip down that house of horrors, and relive those days with Jasimuddin Mallick, Organizing Secretary of Noakhali District Awami League.

—————————————————————————————————————————————-

They probably wanted to kill me. They used to take me to the torture cell daily twice or thrice and stick pins into my tongue and nails, and give me electric shocks. Bamboo and iron rods would be placed on my fingers and my entire body. They failed to kill me through crossfire. Their weapons fell from their hands. Then, they tried to inject me with B virus. They pushed me to the brink of death. They used to torture Tareq Rahman more than they tortured me. Tareq’s screams from the torture cell would reverberate around the building.

This account is by Organizing Secretary of Noakhali District Awami League and UP Chairman Jasimuddin Mallick. He in currentlyunder treatment at BSMMU. Having survived death by crossfire through sheer luck, Mallick said he can still hear the cries of torture by Tareq Rahman, [Giasuddin] Mamun, and Obaidul Quader; they were screaming for their lives and begging for water. Mallick gave this exclusive interview to Manabzamin lying in his bed at BSMMU Hospital. He also said, ” That building in Banani was a torture cell for politicians. They wanted to remove all promising politicians from the country.”

Mallick revealed that he was arrested from his own business enterprise, Jhalak Garments, by a team of military men led by Major Jubair. He was kept overnight at the police station. He was tortured at night by the Officer-in-Charge and three other police officers. They beat him, first with bamboo sticks, then with iron rods. He kept slipping in and out of consciousness due to the torture. Whenever he would wake up, they would start beating him again. Next he was taken to the stadium. He would be given sleeping pills right after being tortured, so he lost track of how much time he spent there. Then he was moved, first to Comilla, then to Dhaka. First, he did not know where he was being kept. After a few days, he realized that he was being kept at a building in Banani. He was kept in Cell Four. Tareq Rahman was kept at Cell Six. Giasuddin Mamun was kept at Cell Three. Obaidul Quader was also close by.

Describing the torture, Mallick said that he would be taken to the torture cell twice or thrice daily. He would be placed in a moving chair and have his arms tied to the chair. Then official would come for interrogation. Electric shocks would be administered through machines. He said he would beg and cry for a drop of water, but none of the officers ever obliged him.

Describing the torture on Tareq Rahman, Mallick said Tareq would also be taken to the torture cell twice or thrice a day. Tareq would walk to the cell, but he would always have to be carried back. His eyes would always be blindfolded. I could hear him cry out when he was being tortured. He would shout, “Please don’t kill me; I will do whatever you want.” I later heard that he would be lifted to a height and then dropped on the floor; that is how spinal cord was broken. I met Tareq in the corridor one day. He used to know me from before. He could not stand properly due to all the injuries on his body. He still smiled and asked me how I was doing. He told me to stay strong and keep faith in Allah. He told me that such injustice could not continue for long. I never got another occasion to speak to him after that. But his screams still reverberate in my ears whenever I shut my eyes.

Mallick said Giasuddin Mamun would also scream loudly when he was being tortured. He heard that nuts would be placed on both of his ears and then a machine would be used to press down on them. Mamun would then keep screaming and become unconscious. During one instance of this torture, blood started flowing and Mamun became grievously injured. The bloodflow could not be staunched by any means. Some specialist doctors were summoned to handle the situation but even they could not help Mamun. Ultimately, he had to be taken abroad and given treatment. However, this incident was kept scret from the press. Obaidul Quader (then Awami League Joint Organizing Secretary, now Presidium Member) was also severely tortured at that time.

Mallick said, “In March, I was taken for crossfire after being given my last rites. As far as I remember, it was an empty place near Aminbazar. It was an open space surrounded by sand in all directions. Colonel Gulzar told me to run, otherwise they would shoot me. However, I refused to run. Then someone kicked me from behind and I fell to the ground. I was again picked up and told to run. However, I stood still. Colonel Gulzar then gave instructions to fire. Then I started reciting the Kalimah Shahada and remembering Hazrat Shah Jalal. However, the weapon jammed in the officer’s hand. He tried to shoot me several times, but could not. I then tried telling them that I was not a terrorist, and that I had no weapons; my political enemies had given them false information about me. They then took me back to my cell. The next morning, Colonel Gulzar told me if they could not shoot me, they would kill me slowly. Then he instructed someone to inject me in the stomach. That day I was sent to Noakhali Police Station. I was sent to the jail the next day. I came down with veru high fever while in jail. But I was never given any treatment.”

“I obtained bail from High Court and left jail on 11th Novermber, 2007. I first went to the Noakhali Central Hospital, and then to Labaid in Dhaka. There I was diagnosed with the B-virus. I started passing blood with my excretion. A few days later, I got admitted to BSMMU Hospital. After running smoe tests on me, the doctors told me I was having liver cirrhosis. I went back home after getting some treatment.”

Mallick had to be readmitted to BSMMU Hospital on January 3 of this year due to his failing health. He is getting treatment in Cabin 410 on the fourth floor. The Chief of BSMMU’s Hepatobiliary, Pancreatic and Liver Transplant Division Professor Shahidur Rahman told Manabzamin that Mallick currently has liver cirrhosis. To keep him alive, he will soon need a liver transplant. This operation is not possible in Bangladesh. They’re in touch with a hospital in Delhi, but it will take almost two million rupees. 

It will take Mallick almost four million taka to go through with the surgery. He has not been able to raise more than one million. He has applied to the Prime Minister for financial assistance. Mallick said he had faced down a lot of oppression throughout his whole life, inspired by the ideals of Bangabandhu. Now he faced death. He needed financial assistance from the Prime Minister and Awami League President to get on with his life.

 

Remand Benodon

Remand benodon (Entertainment).

In the middle ages and in current age in some countries still in the middle age, one of the most popular entertainments was watching torture and execution of the bed elements of the society, the criminals, and the downtrodden. Citizen from all walk of like will gather in the arena to watch and enjoy the unforgettable entertainment of torture and execution of a bed soul. Elites used to get the courtside seats, the general mass in the back seats. Kids used to accompany the parents.

We think we have come a long way from those dark ages. Did we really? The electrifying spread of Saddam execution video, its popularity– does it ring some bell? What about Bangladesh? If we change the context a bit, I do not see much change in the instinct.
In Bangladesh we have a thing called remand. A man/ woman under any sort of suspicion can be taken to undisclosed place by unidentified law enforcement agency people and can be kept for days to months. IN recent years remand lasted from a day to 4 to five months. During this time, the person being held cease to have any kind of basic right. He/ she can’t access any lawyer/ family. He can’t make any communication with anybody. Nobody would know where the person is being taken. People who have been through remand say that during this time they were subjected to all form of torture literally non stop.

Recently torture in the name of remand has become a household feared word. Remand has gained an added dimension by media’s usage of purported remand confessions to make entertaining news. Although torture in police custody is nothing new in Bangladesh, making that event a national entertainment is probably around three years old.
During the military regime of January 2007 to January 2009, almost all of the nation was drunk in a fiesta of entertainment coming out of so called torture confessions. There were two kinds of entertainment values. First the shear fun of knowing a leader of opposing political views is getting a great thrashing while in remand. And second was from all the earth shattering purported confessions being published in the print media. During last military regime, our print media (except the honorable exception of English Daily New Age), gleefully published all the dreadful crimes the political and business leaders committed. And later all the news headlines proved to be false. Not a single media apologized and retracted all the character assassinations they have committed.
During the days of the current elected government the fanfare of remand continued, but with an added spice. One person is picked to get some good thrashing; government’s judiciary provides a remand. Then thrashing starts. And newspapers, as expected, start publishing all the horror stories.

And if the person in remand happens to be a young woman, nothing can get better than that. Invariably erotically charged stories will come out how that women lived with many men, how she was violated, used-reused, how many people married her and divorced her etc. The stories however keep on changing. If one reads same newspaper on three consecutive days, there will be three conflicting version of the same story.

Remains buried under all these sadistic national entertainment— independent-passionate judiciary, responsible journalism and basic human rights.
Who cares.

 

Bangladesh 2009: Judiciary approved, state conducted torture

Ex state minister for Home affairs and expelled BNP leader Lutfuzzaman Babar has been taken into remand under a directive of Supreme Court chamber judge Mozammel Hossain. Earlier a two judge high court bench directed the government to interrogate Mr Babar in Dhaka Central Jail where Mr Babar is in custody now. This supreme court verdict, indirectly, marks a demarcation line between interrogation and remand. The Attorney General asked for something more than simple interrogation and the appellate divn chamber judge M Mozammel Hossain used his constitutional power to allow the state to do ‘something more’ on Mr Babar. Even Attorney General Mahbubey Alam stated that “…the investigators are empowered to decide the place and mode of the interrogation,..”.

 It is an open secret that remand means torture. Every single person who have been through remand in recent past have termed their remand time as living in hell. A senior BNP leader today described remand as killing someone, by stripping him of his self esteem, hope and physical well being. Senior national leaders including current PM, deputy leader of the house, leader of the opposition, senior ministers, parliamentary standing committee chiefs have said, on numerous occassions and on record, that rermand equals torture.

We used to see a lot of remands during the immediate past military regime. People from both sides of political dichotomy in Bangladesh were tortured in the name of remand. And during that time, on many occasions, high court came to reprieve by blocking remand petitions. Many current ruling party leader benefited from such directives of high court. And that time the military government arm twisted Appellate division to overturn many of the high court blocked remand petitions. It is very unfortunate that a democratically elected government run by a party which claims to carry a liberal ideology will resort to the tactics of a cruel military regime. Today, two persons, Justice M Muzammel Hossain and Attorney general Mahbubey Alam paved way for the state to torture a person.  This report in a mainstream vernacular newspaper describes the cirmstances that led to the unprecedented verdict of the supreme court. It must be taken into heart that a supreme court judge and an attorney general are not merely persons. They are institutions. They represent the state and the constitution. Personal political bias, grudge and political calculations must not guide these sort of institutions to resort to unconstitutional activities like torture. Torture does not bring any good for anybody. Torture can not be a tool of a civilized society. Torture can only take the nation back into the dark middle ages.

 

Torture Debate Rocks United States

Barack Obama stood out in a crowded field of contenders by opposing the War in Iraq, and speaking out boldly and forcefully for rule of law. In a country that prides itself on being “a nation of laws, not men,” this was an effective way for a freshmen senator with little political organization to stand out in a contest that was supposed to be a cakewalk for Hillary Clinton. And while his victory in November seemed almost preordained, this rhetoric kept him afloat at a time when his candidacy seemed very much a long-shot, an exploratory run for 2012, or 2016.

Signaling his intent to change the way things were under George W. Bush, Obama gave the Justice Department the lead in the handling of those imprisoned by the United States in Guantanamo during the last eight years. The Department of Justice (DOJ) is America’s equivalent of the Home Ministry and Law Ministry put together; and under a good leader, it is enormously powerful. Particularly heartening was Attorney General Eric Holder’s straightforward acknowledgement that waterboarding, along with other techniques used by the Bush administration, were indeed torture.

The nation’s attention was wrenched back to torture when the Justice Department released a set of memos written by the Office of Legal Counsel in 2002 that made it legal for American officials to torture those held in American custody. The Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) an office in the DOJ that interprets the law for the rest of the executive branch; effectively, if the OLC says that something is legal, then it is legal. The memo was authored by Jay Bybee, then Assistant Attorney General at the OLC, and John Yoo, his deputy. The memos effectively make a host of torture legal; including attention grasp, walling, waterboarding, and being put in a coffin-like space with insects.

Ann Coulter reacted: “This is what Muslims do to each other on first dates.”

CIA and the FBI’s professional interrogators have long made clear their disdain of torture, maintaining that a person will make any confession under torture that will make the pain stop. One of the individuals tortured, Abu Zubaydah, was later revealed to be insane. Even though the Bush administration maintained that torture was only used to prevent an imminent terrorist attack on the United States, allegations have arisen that torture was used to get any information linking Saddam Hossein’s regime to Al Qaeda that could have been used to justify President Bush’s invasion of Iraq in 2003.

While releasing the memos, Obama made clear that he was neither going to prosecute Bybee and Yoo, the lawyers who authored the memo, nor the CIA personnel who actually carried out the torture. However, it was soon recognized that Obama had spoken prematurely, since in any matter involving potential criminal prosecution, the DOJ is able, independent of the more politicized White House, to press ahead on its own.

The question has now become, should torture be prosecuted and punished?

Torture is illegal in the United States. The Convention Against Torture was signed by President Ronald Reagan in 1988 and ratified by the US Senate in 1994. Under Article VI of the United States Constitution, it is the supreme law of the land, in par with laws passed by the Congress. Under this treaty, the United States is obligated to investigate any occurrences of torture. If it does not do so, another country has the authority to carry out these investigations. Spain has already indicted six individuals, including Bybee, Yoo, and Bush’s Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales, in its own investigation of torture. The prosecution of lawyers for their legal advice has impeccable precedents in law: lawyers and judges for Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Reich were tried and sentenced by the Allied Powers after World War Two.

Bybee was appointed to the Federal Appeals Court, essentially our High Court, by Bush; where he serves for life unless Congress impeaches him. Yoo is now a professor at the elite Boalt Hall School of Law at UC Berkeley. Prosecuting either will not be painless, just like the self-examination that the Democrats must go through now will not be painless. Just like any good Washington scandal, this trouble is bipartisan: key democratic leaders, including then House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, were briefed by the CIA regarding the torture. She knew about the torture, and chose to keep silent.

This scandal has come at a time when Pelosi, now Speaker of the House, is at the height of her power. Commanding solid Democratic majorities in both chambers of the Congress, shepherding to passage a new President’s legislative agenda, and boosting impeccable liberal credentials, America’s first female Speaker was well-set to begin a reign of power unmatched since Sam Rayburn held the gavel, and his protégé, Lyndon Johnson, sat a heartbeat away from the Oval Office. An already-iconic figure amongst the liberals, she is despised by America’s conservatives. Her daughter Alexandra Pelosi, making a documentary for HBO, followed John McCain around the country during his presidential campaign. Describing Republican political rallies, she noted during an interview:

[T]he warm-up speakers that were criticizing the Democrats in Washington, would give these incredibly offensive speeches that all ended with the punch line of something really derogatory with the name Pelosi next to it. It really got the crowds worked up. And I had to call my father during the campaign and say to him, “Dad, did you know how hated you are in America? Did you know that your last name has become a symbol of just like every four-letter word?”

However, this scandal has already cast doubts on Pelosi’s political future. Her district, California-8, covers the liberal bastion of San Francisco; a seat held by Democrats since 1949, which has returned Pelosi eleven times with over 75% of the vote. Her constituents will not take easily to their own Member acting as an enabler for the Bush administration’s torture.

It would be unfair to characterize the outrage as coming only from the left. Fox News Host Shepard Smith, during a debate with his colleagues, responded to the argument made by many of his colleagues about the utility of torture in preventing future threats to America, when he banged his fist on his desk, and bawled out: “We are America! I don’t give a rat’s ass if it helps! We do not f****** torture! And the moment that is not the case, I want off the train.”

The current debate regarding torture prosecution have raised questions about ignoring violations of the law when it serves a purported greater good, and the extent to which former government officials should be prosecuted for breaking the law. Societies around the world have to grapple with these questions; and the answers they choose have grave consequences about their future trajectory.

 

Khaleda Zia — tortured, yet hell-bent

One of the many very negative characteristics of BNP’s 2001-2006 government is ‘paranoia’. During the whole five years Khaleda Zia was captivated by an uncontrollable suspicion of an Awami League hatched, bureaucracy-NGO supported conspiracy against her government. She could never accept her 1996 street defeat in agreeing to CTG system and her election defeat which she always believed as engineered.

In fact Khaleda Zia’s mortal hatred or ‘possibly’ fear of conspiracy originates much before her 91-96 governance. Depriving her husband of the army chief position in 1972, attempts to send her husband out as ambassador to Czechoslovakia throughout 74-75, events of 75, numerous attempts to kill her husband between 75 and 81 have made Khaleda Zia very severely obsessed with conspiracy theories. En masse defection of top tier BNP leadership, multi-pronged attempts to dismantle BNP did only embolden that paranoia. Then throughout her anti autocracy movement through 1990, she had been struck several times by betrayals. Notable among those are BNP Secretary General Obaidur Rahman’s secret liaison with Ershad, Sheikh Hasina’s somersault to join 86 election. Even at the fag end of anti Ershad movement the jewel in Khaleda’s crown, some senior leadership of Chhatra Dal, decided to betray her by colluding with Ershad.

 

Dancing on a corpse

They brought the dead body all the way to Dhaka because they would not allow Khaleda Zia and her son’s to travel to Dinajpur. The DGFI led government dared subject a dead body to this much hassle in a country where the religio-social culture is to treat a deceased with utmost respect and bury ASAP with least humiliation of the body. [And those scoundrels in Prothom Alo are making a case about use of government helicopter for Khaleda’s mother!!!!] The family did not want Government helicopter, they did not want to bring the body to Dhaka either. It was DGFI plan to minimize a freedome time and prevent a meeting of Khaleda and her sons.

Then when the talk about remand came up, I expected a repeat of the treatment Sheikh Selim, the AL leader in detention received, when his mother died. Sheikh Selim was released for about 8 hours, whole of which he spent with his family, friends and political colleague at his home in Banani. All Awami League politicians including Sheikh Hasina were also there. There was no restriction on Mr. Selim from attending any ritual or anybody else from visiting him. For Mr. Selim it was a sad, unwanted but at least a tolerable good bye to his mother.

But this was not going to happen in case of Khaleda Zia and her sons. Although remand was granted for six hours, both Tareq and Coco was held in waiting in separate police stations and was allowed only one hour in their houses. Khaleda Zia could spend a little more than 2 hours. And all three could visit separately so that none could talk to each other.

[Photo: New Age]

What major disaster could happen if they were allowed to be together during this time of this great personal loss? Would they hatch a conspiracy? How could they follow up that conspiracy from their solitary confinement in their respective prisons? Or they would have discussed legal defense strategies?
If the case against Tareq or Coco is so solid, if there were sooooooooooooo many witnesses of the extortions by Tareq or Coco, why this much fear of their defence strategies? Why torture? Our activists are very much bothered about torture against anybody but BNP leadership or Zia family. Regarding Tareq’s recent torture allegation, there was not a single word from our so-called human rights watchdogs. And the government would not say anything. Yes government and its mouthpieces spoke out. But only to prove that a picture attributed to torture on Tareq was false. So, it’s all right to torture Tareq but a fake picture will never be tolerated!!

And ‘ torture’ is the only word you would find to describe the way Khaleda family was treated yesterday in the name of humanitarian remand. This torture is another act atrocity of the current regime controlled by military chief Moeen u Ahmed and army intelligence. And believe me, no atrocity in Bangladesh (Tareq Zia is now paying for his cricket game under police protection) goes unpunished. I only have this to say to General Moeen, CA spineless Fakhruddin, home advisor Matin, DGFI brigadiers Amin and Bari and those lower rank corrupt DGFI officers. Brigedier C F Bari knows what is gonopituni when he was given a mild gonopituni by the students of university on the night of 20th August. But that 20th August Gonopituni will feel like ‘jamai ador’ when the next wave will come upon you dear General and Brigedier shahibs.

 

Torture

Newspaper reports today on Tareq Rahman’s allegations of physical torture while in remand.

.

‘I was kept blindfolded for 18 hours of the 24 hours of remand on December 31. I was not taken to a police station from the Dhaka Central Jail but somewhere else. I was tied up and suspended from the ceiling and tortured physically there while being kept blindfolded,’

Detained former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia’s son Tarique Rahman alleged in the court on Wednesday that he was tortured after being taken on remand.

‘When a politician like me is tortured inhumanly in remand, what can happen to the common people?’

Tarique, who is also senior joint secretary-general of the BNP, questioned the magistrate.

‘I want security for my life,’ he pleaded.

****************************************************
This blogger knows that this report will make many people very happy and also knows that many people will be saddened too. Instead of commenting on this report, this blogger prefers to remind all of the following poem,

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I wasn’t a Jew.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.

This poem, “First they came…” which is arguably attributed to Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984), was written on the inactivity of German intellectuals following the Nazi rise to power and the purging of their chosen targets, group after group.