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Arbitrary
arrest and Brutality on former Minister Dr.
Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir |
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Human
rights violation by the govt. of Bangladesh The Bangladesh Institute of Human Rights (BIHR)
and Forum Against Torture and Organized Violence (FATOV) requests your
URGENT ACTION in the following situation in Bangladesh. Brief Description of the situation: Dr. Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir, the State minister in the immediate past Awami League government (formerly a bureaucrat and a Secretary to the Government before joining the politics) was arrested from the Zia International Airport on 15 March at 10:30 p.m. on charge of ‘instigating’ government officials and employees to join the agitation led from the Janatar Mancha (people’s dais) in the capital that dislodged the BNP government in 1996. Police detained Alamgir at Zia International Airport as he returned from abroad at around 10:30 Friday night and was shown arrested under Sec.54 of the Cr.PC. He was then taken to the Special Branch of Police office and kept there till he was produced before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s (CMM) Court, Dhaka, 16 March 2002 afternoon. The prosecution and the defense sides argued for nearly two hours as the court heard the police prayer for his remand for 10 day but the court however placed him on a two-day remand. Police produced him on 19 March 2002 before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s (CMM) court after expiry of a two-day remand. The Police prayed for seven days’ fresh remand. The court granted him two days remand. After the expiry of the second remand for two days, Dr. Alamgir, instead of producing him in the court, was taken to the central jail on March 22, 2002. The defense lawyer on 21 March 2002, in the court of CMM submitted a petition seeking bail hearing in presence of Dr. Alamgir, which the court ordered to fix on 24 March 2002. On 24 March 2002, Dr. Alamgir was produced in the CMM (at the court of Kazi Meraj Hossain Magistrate) court at about 11 a.m. With the permission of the court, Dr. Alamgir complained that although the remand was taken by police, he was, in reality, taken to cantonment where he was brutally tortured. Three men with masked beaten him indiscriminately. In one stage, a bottle was forcibly pushed through his rectum which he could not disclose earlier for shame. He asked the perpetrator as to the reason of his inhuman torture, “It is at the order of your father” they replied. Dr. Alamgir further asked who was that father? They could not responded. Dr. Alamgir further alleged that while he was under remand in second time, he was given electric shock indiscriminately on the sensitive part of his body. He is, indeed, a diabetes patient but he was not allowed to take medicine, which was kept in his briefcase ceased by the police. During four days of police remand he was not allowed to take food, water and sleep. He showed the Magistrate the mark of injuries resulting out of torture meted out to him while he was under police remand. He also complaint that he was not provided with a mosquito net and also showed the magistrates bites of mosquito in his hand. He wanted to buy some mosquito coil or a mosquito net with his own money which jail authority denied. He expressed his apprehension that he may be died due to tortured meted out to him. Observation of BIHR & FATOV. Dr. Alamgir was implicated in the incident as part of a conspiracy to harass him politically. As a matter of fact, Police failed to bring any specific charge against him till 19 March 2002. Later Police submitted a petition for showing Alamgir arrested in a case filed with Kochua Thana in Chandpur ( case no. 26(9) 2001, Sec. 143, 326, 307)for a attempt to murder on September 20 of last year. The Kochua case is based on a wireless message sent by the SP of Chandpur in which it was stated that the former minister was suspected of attempting a murder. But the message did not mention on whom the attempt was made. Dr. Alamgir was given detention for 3 months under Special Power Act. Earlier, under a writ petition filed 17 March 2002 by Dr. Borhanuddin Khan Jahangir, elder brother of Dr. Alamgir, the High Court Division of the Bangladesh Supreme Court passed a verbal order to the Attorney General of Bangladesh to let High Court the whereabouts of Dr. Alamgir and he must not be interrogated other than police remand. But Dr. Alamgir complained that he was interrogated by the Joint Interrogation Team at an unknown place, possibly at the Dhaka Cantonment. The Bangladesh Institute of Human Rights (BIHR) and Forum Against Torture and Organized Violence (FATOV) believe that Dr. Alamgir was arrested arbitrarily and brutally tortured in violation of the international human rights instruments in general and Bangladesh constitution(Art. 35(5), 38, 39Ka etc) in particular. As such a case of gross violation of human rights and require your URGENT INTERVENTION. Action requested: Please write to the authorities in Bangladesh urging them to: ·Take all necessary measures to guaranty the physical and psychological integrity of Dr. Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir. · Order a thorough and impartial investigation into the alleged torture and identify those responsible, bring them to trial and app the penal, civil and/or administrative sanctions as provided by the law. · Order to form an independent medical board for the treatment of Dr. Alamgir immediately. · Order to release Dr. Alamgir from the prison immediately for the cause of his ill health.
Please
write to : Altaf Hossain Chowdhury
New
development on the case of Arbitrary
arrest and The High Court on Saturday 30 March 2002 issued a rule on the government asking it to show cause within two weeks why the detention of Alamgir under the SPA should not be declared to have been made without lawful authority. The court issued the rule following a writ petition filed the victim’s brother Dr.Borhanuddin Khan Jahangir challenging the legality of the detention order. Alamgir
not produced in court due to ‘security reasons’ Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir, former state minister for planning, arrested under Section 54 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), was not produced before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrates Court, Dhaka 31 March 2002 although his appearance date was fixed. Jail authorities sent a custody warrant (CW) to the court for fixing next date of appearance. Alamgir was not produced before the court due to ‘security reasons,’ court sources said. After scrutinizing the custody warrant, Magistrate Kazi Meraj Hossain fixed April 15 for next hearing of the case. It is to be noted that the District Magistrate’s Court, Dhaka gave one month’s detention to Alamgir under the Special Power’s Act (SPA). Corrigendum: please note that Dr. Alamgir was given detention for one month not for three month which I inadvertently mentioned in my case report forwarded to you earlier.
Human
rights violation by the govt. of Bangladesh Brief
Description of fact: The
Special Assistant to the Awami League President Sheikh Hasina, Mr. A.F.M.
Bahauddin Nasim was brutally tortured while he was put
in joint interrogation cell as well as
police remand for 5 days. The
fact revealed when Mr.
Nasim’s wife Mrs. Sultana Shamima Chowdhury
Rita who is also a medical doctor by profession, accompanied by
Nasim’s brother Yemen found Nasim very sick and she found clotted blood
in his eyes while visiting
him at the Dhaka Central Jail on
13 March 2002 at 11.oo o’clock in the morning. Mr. Nasim also informed
her wife that he was taken blind
folded to Dhaka Cantonment from CID Office on 1 March 2002. On the way to
Cantonment he was forced to sit on Deck
of the vehicle and put to inhuman treatment. At the cantonment, the DGFI (Army Intelligence) interrogated
him from 1-6 March 2002. During this period he was
placed in hanging position with
a rope tied to a rotating ceiling fan. Dr. Shamima Chowdhury reported BRCT that from 1st March to 6th
March 2002 Mr. Nasim was blindfolded and kept in an unknown place in the
Dhaka cantonment where he was interrogated by the DGFI and was brutally
tortured which included electric shock on sensitive parts of his body and
he was not allowed to sleep and even to take food. She found bruise in his
head and body as an evidence of torture. She also marked that both of his
knees joint were swollen resulting from indiscriminate beating.
During meeting with her, he informed his wife that the DGFI beat on
both of his knee with iron hammer and she also noticed tightened rope mark
on both of his wrist. She also noticed soft tissue swelling on the back of
chest due to torture including bleeding from his nose consequent upon
severe blow over his face and
pouring ice cold water through his nostril.
The detainee could hardly walk or stand up or even sit in one
position. Even he could not stand properly and found very weak physically
and mentally shattered. He was so seriously
beaten as the Jailor
had to refuse to take him from the DGFI on mid night of 6 March
2002. Later he was transferred to jail on 07 March 2002. Following a Writ petition (writ petition no. 1268 of 2002, Date:
13-03-2002) filed by Nasim’s wife Dr. Shamima Chowdhury on March 10,
2002 a Bench of the High Court Division of the Bangladesh Supreme Court
directed government authorities to arrange for the treatment of Bahauddin
Nasim at any medical college hospital in Dhaka by forming a Medical Board
immediately. The Court further directed the authorities to allow his two
close relatives and two lawyers to meet with the detainee, Nasim. His wife
Dr. Shamima Chowdhury and Yemin, a brother of Nasim only could visit him
on 13 March 2002 and gave the above-mentioned statement about the physical
condition of Naism. But the directives of the High Court for his treatment
at medical college is not yet to be implemented. It is now expected that the authority will respect High Court Ruling
and provide treatment
facilities at any Medical College Hospital in Dhaka. Background of his arrest: Bahauddin
Nasim, Special Assistant to Sheikh Hasina, the Leader of the Opposition in
the Parliament and President of Awami League was arrested from the
international airport in Dhaka on the
28th of February 2002 at about 12:00 AM when he went there to
fly for the United States for treatment of his heart disease. Later he was
shown arrested in two separate cases, one (Airport police station case no.
21, Date: 28-02-2002, under section 25(B) of Special Power Act of 1974) in
Airport police station and other (Madaripur police station case no. 36,
Date: 20-06-2001, under section: 143/341/307/506(2)/34 of Penal Code)
filed with Madaripur police station. On March 11 in 2002 police filed a
sedition case with Airport police station (case no. 5, Date 11-03-2002,
under section 123 A/124 A/505/505 A of the Penal Code) against Bahauddin
Nasim who was accused of acting against the country’s sovereignty and
tarnishing the image abroad. The case, filed with the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court, Dhaka,
set CD cassettes recovered from Nasim’s possession on his way to the USA
on February 28, had false and fabricated scenes of torture on the minority
community. Mohammad Dulal Uddin Akond, ASP of CID, Faridpur Zone, Dhaka,
alleged that he arrested Bahauddin Nasim, who is also joint convenor of
Awami League Shechasebok League, seized US dollar 6,300.00, three
passports, two tickets, 8 books on ‘Crime Against Humanity’, two books
on ‘Away the Covers’, four books on ‘Appendix to Crime Against
Humanity, Political persecution and Persecution of Religious Minority:
Case Summaries’, 8 newspapers on “First 30 days’ gift from Khaleda
Zia’s 100 days’ program” two stamps of Tk. 100 and 50, a money bag,
and a book of 45 pages on, “How to Contact Spy Shop USA” from Nasim.
The CID also seized eight verbatim CK-R and 12 MB CD-R from him. The
complainant also alleged that he found the incidents of murder, torture
and ransacking in Dhaka University and different parts of the country
caused by the four-party alliance when the videocassettes were screened.
The video cassettes contained torture of Purnima in Sirajgonj, attacks on
minority Hindu community after the general election on October 1, last
year, ransacking of puja altars, obstruction to celebrate puja of Hindu
community. There were stories of torture of people in Bangladesh in the
books seized from Nasim, the complainant claimed. “Such activities might
destroy the communal harmony and worsen the country’s law and order,”
the complainant observed. In the case filed in Madaripur, it was alleged that Bahauddin Nasim was involved in the incident of gunshot to the motorcade of the then Prime Minister Khaleda Zia in 1996. After his arrest on 28 March 2002 at 12:00 AM, Criminal Investigation
Department (CID) Police took Nasim to the head quarter of CID at Malibagh
and kept him there for about one day with heavy guards. He was produced at
the Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court on 01 March 2002 around 8:00 PM and
demanded remand for fourteen days in the name of interrogation in two
separate cases. The Magistrate sanctioned remand for ten days, 5 days for
each for two separate cases. Nasim was taken to unknown place at the Dhaka Cantonment fully blindfolded
all through from March 1 to 6, 2002. He was interrogated there by the
Joint Interrogation Team of the Defense Force Intelligence (DGFI) of the
Bangladesh Army and brutally tortured. The main purpose of the torture was
to extract false statement that the then Prime Minister Shiekh Hasina
personally instructed to bomb blast incidences took place during her
regime. Sources from the Dhaka Central Jail informed that Bahauddin Nasim was kept
in a dirty, bad-smelled cell in the prison without any bed with
mosquito-bites that has weakened him mentally and physically. On March 10, 2002 the High Court Division Bench ordered the government
authority to allow Dr. Mrs. Sultana Shamima Rita, wife of Bahauddin Nasim,
to meet her husband in the Dhaka Central Jail. Dr. Shamima, according to
the Court order, tried to see her husband on March 10 and 11, but the jail
authority denied allowing her to have any audience with Mr. Nasim. On March 13, 2002 Mrs. Shamima despite having requested to have the
meeting in privacy with her husband, the jail authority denied. The
meeting was attended by and at the glare and presence of officials i.e.
the Detective Branch, the Special Branch, the Jailer, the Deputy Jailer,
Subedor and several Sepahis. The over bearing presence of these officials
caused intimidation upon both the petitioner, Dr. Shamima, as well as her
husband and prevented them to have any conversation in a free atmosphere
or environment. Nor could the detainee show his wife various marks of
injury and torture in his private parts. The detainee could hardly walk or
stand up or even sits in one position due to his injuries. There were
marks of grave injuries, which were evident from the parts of his hands
exposed through the sleeves of the panjabi/kurta. He was severely tortured
in all conceivable manners, including electric shocks in different parts
of his body, eyes continuously tied for 6 days and was kept hanging with
his hands tied from a rope during those 6 days in Cantonment. Mr. Nasim
was beaten intermittently several times a days and denied food, sleep and
other basic necessities of life. These tortures upon him were being
conducted in order to implicate Sheik Hasina and her party in respect of
various terrorist acts which were in fact was committed at the behest of
the Jamat/BNP alliance. Dr. Shamima noticed that both his eyes were abnormally bloods shot, red;
in the white part of his left eye, there was a very distinguished black
mark, which Mr. Nasim did not have before his incarceration. She also
noticed that her husband was limping with an effect of tilting and bending
on one side as he was compelled to walk away from his wife. Remand: On the
application made for remand in the Airport police station case (no. 21,
Date 28-02-2002) and Madaripur case (no. 36, Date: 20-06-2001) the
Magistrate did not receive any material or neither document nor the case
diary was produced before the Magistrate. And there was no application of
mind as to the need for remand under police custody. The Magistrate did
not record the reasons for giving the remand nor does his order disclose
the application of mind as to why the remand is necessary and why it is
necessary for five days consecutively in each case totaling 10 days of
remand. The same order of remand is a gross violation of Criminal
Procedure Code. The remand for 5 days in the Airport police station case no. 21, Date
28-02-2002 having been over on 05-03-2002, Mr. Nasim was to be produced in
Court on that day. But the Investigation Officer filed an application on
06-03-2002 to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Dhaka stating that the
remand in Airport P.S. case was over on 06-03-2002 and the subsequent
remand for 5 days in Madaripur Case would begin on 07-03-2002, whereas in
fact, the remand in Airport P.S. case was over on 05-03-2002 and Mr. Nasim
ought to have been produced before the Court on 05-03-2002 and the I.O.
has erred in law in continuing the 5 days remand till 06-03-2002. Thus
continuation of remand on 06-03-2002 for one more day was without any
lawful authority. The Bangladesh Institute of Human Rights(BIHR) and its affiliated
networking human rights organizations ”Forum Against Torture &
Organized Violence(FATOV) are gravely concerned about torture, cruel and
inhuman treatment meted out to Nasim in violation of Art. 35(5) of the
Bangladesh Constitution and related international human rights
instruments, which is found to be symbolic
of the deterioration of the human rights situation in Bangladesh after the
general election, held on 1st October 2001. After the general
election, Khaleda Zia and her four party alliances took power and
committed a reign of terror especially on the members of the opposition
and the minority community whom generally thought of supporter of Awami
league being the affiliate of Awami League.. Recently, the current
government arrested eight student leaders of the Student League. After the
last general election present ruling party leaders and workers have been
committing gross violation of human rights such as raping the minority
girls, looting their houses and causing
injuries and killing the workers and leaders of the opposition
party especially the Awami League. On the
last 14 and 15 February, a National Convention on the Crime Against
Humanity was held in Dhaka and political
activists who were attacked by the ruling party hoodlums during and after
October 1st general election, including rape victims shared
their painful experiences of becoming victims of gross violation of human
rights. Suggested Action Bangladesh
Institute of Human Rights (BIHR) and its Forum Against Torture and
Organized Violence(FATOV)confirmed that AFM Bahauddin Nasim was arrested
by the government just for
his political belief and his close associations with the Leader of the
Opposition and President of Awami league and former Prime Minister of
Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina. Recent political scenario and experience shows
that the currently government of BNP which in coalition with the so called
fundamentalist Jamat being installed in power after the 1st.
October general election, has
not only unleashed a reign of terror, rape, looting an arson upon the
Awami League leaders and workers and supporters, but also created an awful
situation of despondency and fear by way of filling false and concocted
cases of frame-up . Here Bangladesh
Institute of Human Rights (BIHR)
and the Forum Against Torture and Organized Violence(FATOV) have been
asserted that again the democracy, human rights and rule of law are be
axed by the current
government of Khaleda Zia through illegal arrest and detention of
Bahauddin Nasim. BIHR has been making
this appeal to all international organizations to act quickly and adjudge
him as the “prisoners’ of conscience”.
Pressure must be brought to bear on the government of Prime
Minister Khaleda Zia to put an immediate end to the persecution and
harassment to Bahauddin Nasim. Bahauddin should be given opportunity to
undergo treatment at any hospital out side of the prison and finally be
released immediately and unconditionally on ground of his ill health. The
government of Khaleda Zia be urged to stop recurrence of the on going
political repression on the opposition political parties in Bangladesh and
guarantee the respect of human rights and the fundamental freedoms throughout the country in
accordance with national and international human rights standards.
Please write to: Prime
Minister Begum Khaleda Zia Altaf Hossain Chowdhury *** Please send a copy of your letter to Dr. Sultana Shamima Chowdhury Rita, the wife of detainee Bahauddin Nasim as mark of solidarity to the family of the torture survivor, to e-mail: alphouse@progetelbd.net, Fax No:+ 880-2-9124533 Attn: Dr. Sultana Shamima Chowdhury Rita ( or Mailing address: House No. 666, Road No. 33A(Old), 11(New),2 Dhanmondi Residential Area, Dhaka, Bangladesh). |
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