A haunting message scrawled on the wall of a secret detention cell has revealed the grim reality of enforced disappearances, a survivor told the International Crimes Tribunal-1 yesterday.
Freedom fighter Iqbal Chowdhury, testifying as the fourth witness in a high-profile crimes against humanity case, described the windowless cell at DGFI’s Joint Interrogation Cell (JIC) as roughly 15 to 16 feet high, with a single overhead light.
The walls, he said, were marked with brick scratches and blood-like red stains bearing desperate messages from previous detainees.
One inscription, written beneath a Banglalink mobile phone number, read: “If any brother sees this, please call this number and tell my mother that I have been brought here from Rupganj and kept detained.”
Chowdhury recounted spending days that turned into months surrounded by the pleas of unknown captives, whose anguish remained etched on the walls.
The case against deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina and 12 others, including her former defence adviser Maj Gen (retd) Tarique Ahmed Siddique, five former directors general of DGFI, and five directors of DGFI’s Counter Terrorism and Intelligence Bureau (CTIB), involves allegations of enforced disappearance, secret detention, and torture of at least 24 individuals at the JIC between 2016 and August 2024.
Iqbal testified that he was abducted from his Mohammadpur home on May 7, 2018, and taken to the secret cell, where he endured inhuman torture.
After two days in confinement, two men took him for a bath. When he asked why none of his relatives had contacted him and when he would be produced in court, they replied: “No one from outside can enter this place, and no one who comes here can leave either. Here is the court, and here the judgement is delivered.”
He was eventually released on April 25, 2019, nearly a year later. By then, two of his elder sisters had died, and his younger brother had passed away just 40 days before his release.
During his detention, Iqbal said he was repeatedly blindfolded and taken to a cold, air-conditioned interrogation room. There, men questioned him about his background, education, and connections with military officers and police officials. They also interrogated him about Facebook posts critical of the Awami League government and India. The witness said he did not oppose the government but criticised and wrote against India’s influence in Bangladesh.
He described brutal physical torture. On one occasion, an interrogator beat his knees, shins, and ankles with a thick stick until he screamed in pain. On another, clips were attached to his left ring finger and ear, and electric shocks were administered, leaving his fingernail damaged and part of his left hand partially numb.
At one point, he overheard an interrogator speaking in Hindi, calling him “a dangerous man, very talented and intelligent,” leading him to suspect the man an Indian.
One day, he heard election announcements and a local funeral notice mentioning Kafrul. From these random announcements outside, he later sensed that he was being held inside or near the cantonment area where the DGFI headquarters is located.
Iqbal said an interrogator eventually informed him that orders to release him had come “from the highest level,” but he was warned to never reveal what had happened. He was instructed to fabricate a story denying knowledge of who had taken him or where he had been held.
Blindfolded and handcuffed, he was driven for about 20 minutes and dropped near the Shia Mosque area in Mohammadpur.
Addressing the tribunal, Iqbal said he was seeking justice for the mental and physical torture and enforced disappearance he endured. He placed responsibility on the authorities in power at the time, including Sheikh Hasina, Tarique Ahmed Siddique, DGFI leadership, and the officials who ran the interrogation cell. “I want justice for what was done to me,” he told the court.
