Former army officer Hasinur Rahman testified as the second witness in the case of the disappearance of the Joint Interrogation Cell (JIC) during the ousted Awami League government. In his deposition, he described the torture in the JIC and said that he was told that he was taken away on the orders of the then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Justice Md. Hasinur Rahman gave this statement to the three-member International Criminal Tribunal-1 headed by Golam Mortuza Majumdar. As the statement was not completed, January 27 was fixed as the next day. Earlier, Hummam Quader Chowdhury, son of late BNP Standing Committee member Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, testified in this case.
Among the 13 accused in this case, 12 are current and former army officers. Among them, the three former directors of DGFI, Major General Sheikh Md., were arrested. Sarwar Hossain, Brigadier General Md. Mahbubur Rahman Siddiqui and Brigadier General Ahmed Tanvir Mazahar Siddiqui were produced in the tribunal. The rest are absconding.
Dismissed Lt. Col. Hasinur Rahman (Bir Prateek) said, Lieut. He went missing on July 9, 2011 while serving in the army as a colonel. He was blindfolded and left on the floor in Dhaka’s army interrogation cell for 43 days. Later they were taken to the officers’ mess. The matter was not disclosed to his family. He was sentenced to four years in prison by a court-martial after being charged by a court of inquiry. He was falsely accused of being involved with an organization called Harkatul Jihad. An appeal against the sentence was not settled. When Iqbal Karim Bhuiyan became the army chief in 2014, he was released on his orders.
Hasinur Rahman said that on August 8, 2018, he went missing again. Released on 22 February 2020. At that time it was kept in the ‘mirror’ of DGFI. The room where he was kept was 8-10 feet and damp, dirty, horrible. High voltage bulbs were burning in the room. The mobile number was written in blood on the wall. He was asked why he wrote against Army Chief Aziz, why he wrote about the 2014 elections, why he went to Rawa Club in late 2018. He was informed that he was taken there on the orders of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Failure to do as instructed will result in disqualification.
Hasinur also said that he was taken to another room in that building; Which was worse than the previous room. There were two big exhaust fans. There were 10 rooms. Screams and cries could be heard from every room. There, some were handed over to RAB to be killed. The place where he was kept, the guards called it the ‘mirror room’. It was on the south side of the 14th floor building of the DGFI headquarters. The food there was of very poor quality. Bed sheets and clothing were unusable. Often the adjacent rooms were empty. Prisoners were removed. New prisoners were brought there. The guards used to say that those who were taken were taken for crossfire.
