Bangladeshi who spoke to DW about police brutality, arrested

[Homo Sapiens]

HUMAN RIGHTSBANGLADESH

Bangladeshi who spoke to DW about police brutality, arrested​

Bangladeshi who spoke to DW about police brutality, arrested – DW – 04/10/2023

Nafiz Mohammed Alam appeared in a DW investigation on Bangladesh's counterterrorism force RAB last week. DW has established that he is now being held in jail in Dhaka.

www.dw.com

Kieran Burke | Arafatul Islam
18 hours ago18 hours ago
Nafiz Mohammed Alam appeared in a DW investigation on Bangladesh's counterterrorism force RAB last week. DW has established that he is now being held in jail in Dhaka.

Bangladeshi who spoke to DW about police brutality, arrested – DW – 04/10/2023

Nafiz Mohammed Alam appeared in a DW investigation on Bangladesh's counterterrorism force RAB last week. DW has established that he is now being held in jail in Dhaka.

p.dw.com

A 23-year-old Bangladeshi man who recounted his experience of being brutally tortured to DW's investigative unit at the hands of Bangladesh's elite counterterrorism force — the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) — was arrested on Sunday night, just days after the story was published.

What we know about Alam's arrest​

Arafatul Islam — who was part of DW's investigative team — spoke with close contacts of Alam, who confirmed that police had taken him from his apartment in Dhaka at around 6:30 p.m. local time (12:30 GMT). He was then taken to a local police station where he was being held.

Abdul Ahad, the Deputy Commissioner of Gulshan Division of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, later confirmed Alam's arrest to DW.
"He was arrested yesterday evening over a pornography case filed in 2021. A new arrest warrant was issued recently due to the case that police followed," Ahad said.

Police filed the pornography case in November 2021 following the raid by RAB, at his apartment as mentioned in DW's investigation.

"Police also found some alcohol bottles when they raided his apartment yesterday and are planning to file a new lawsuit based on the findings," said Ahad. "He has been sent to court today.''

People in Bangladesh need permission from authorities to consume alcohol. Alam told DW in January that he had permission to do so.
Islam said that contacts of Alam had informed him that he had been taken to jail after appearing in court.

Joint investigation uncovered extrajudicial killings, torture​

The DW exposé, written in collaboration with Sweden-based Netra News and published on April 3, investigated the alleged actions of Bangladesh's elite police unit and featured accounts from Alam and some others along with unnamed former members of the unit.

Their accounts detailed the inner workings of the RAB and revealed instances of extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, and torture at the hands of the elite unit.

The allegations made by former commanders suggest that key figures in the ruling government may be using the elite force for political gain, with tacit approval, from the highest offices in Bangladesh.

In Alam's case, he was arrested by the RAB on November 3rd, 2021, and accused of illegally selling alcohol, a controlled substance in Bangladesh.

Alam said he was the victim of torture over a 36-hour period and recounted being beaten and given shocks with electricity before eventually being released.

The DW Investigative Unit and Netra News confronted the Home Ministry, the Prime Minister's Office and RAB to respond to the allegations.

A RAB spokesman referred to the Ministry of Home Affairs, which, in turn, wrote that it had "diligently assessed and scrutinized the issues and found that the issues are overstated, exaggerated, baseless and untrue."

Concern over Alam's well-being​

Naomi Conrad and Birgitta Schülke, were part of the DW investigative team that interviewed Alam and said his account of what happened was a vital part of the story.

"We wanted to talk to Alam because we knew he had spent time in RAB's secret detention facilities, which was something our whistleblowers had talked about. And it was important to us to corroborate their accounts with other sources, including his testimony," Conrad said.

"When we met with him, we talked about his security and also the risks of going on the record. He was still adamant to do so, despite the risks," said Schülke.

The journalists expressed their concern over Alam's immediate safety.

"He was well aware that something like this might happen and had taken some precautions — but sadly, the security forces seem bent on silencing our interview partners. We are very worried for his safety," Schülke said.

Tasneem Khalil who is the Editor-in-Chief of Netra News, tweeted about Alam's arrest and said developments were being closely watched.

"Nafiz Mohammed Alam, the 23-year-old torture survivor who was featured in the recent DW-Netra News investigation into RAB, has been arrested by Bangladesh police and taken to Vatara police station in Dhaka. We are monitoring this closely," Khalil said in a Twitter post.
Edited by: Richard Connor

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[Bilal9]

These BAL idiots do not know when to stop - they are already under the microscope by DW (and big daddy USA).

They know come election time they will be gone. So they are staging these futile theatrics.......

 

[villageidiot]

These BAL idiots do not know when to stop - they are already under the microscope by DW (and big daddy USA).

I think they might be banking on the good old, sovereignty vs US interference? Works like a charm. Look at us.
IK was done for this time last year and then the other guys started having meetings with US embassy staff. Pictures came out. Old foes became besties thanks to Fauji Glue TM . Sharifs became pals with Bhuttos/Zardaris. The ethnic nationalists became pals with religious nutters.
What followed was a piece of art by IK. Today everybody is running from elections, on the pretext of bad economy, security (which is not that bad). Constitutional deadline of 90 has already passed for Punjab and KPK province (70% of the population lives in these two provinces)

They know come election time they will be gone. So they are staging these futile theatrics.......

Who is expected to win? BNP or some coalition?
How long has BAL been ruling and if you were to summarise their rule and rank the issues plaguing them, what would they be?

 

[Bilal9]

I think they might be banking on the good old, sovereignty vs US interference? Works like a charm. Look at us.
IK was done for this time last year and then the other guys started having meetings with US embassy staff. Pictures came out. Old foes became besties thanks to Fauji Glue TM . Sharifs became pals with Bhuttos/Zardaris. The ethnic nationalists became pals with religious nutters.
What followed was a piece of art by IK. Today everybody is running from elections, on the pretext of bad economy, security (which is not that bad). Constitutional deadline of 90 has already passed for Punjab and KPK province (70% of the population lives in these two provinces)

Excellent and accurate assessment - same might repeat in Bangladesh scenario too, though the politically savvy qualification of the Bangladeshi leaders are probably not as high as your leaders in Pakistan. Pakistani leaders come from a long line of and are at the head of the zamindari ladder while these BAL leaders were third rate goondas and low level political cadre from lower middle class families. The exposure and education is very wanting in leadership of all political parties. Their main weapon and tactic is agitation on the streets. Decent people in Bangladesh no longer go into politics.

Who is expected to win? BNP or some coalition?
How long has BAL been ruling and if you were to summarise their rule and rank the issues plaguing them, what would they be?

There was some hope ten years ago that BNP might have a credible opposition to foist against BAL. That is no longer true.

BNP made a mess of it by not following a clean path (too much corruption by Khaleda's sons) and not grooming non-family people as leaders. Khaleda's sons were essentially sent away overseas, one died in Malaysia reportedly from a drug overdose and Tareq Zia is in exile with family for a decade in London. He's not returning soon.

Slowly BAL (who has been in power by over a decade) made sure that BNP activists were rounded up and made to disappear, using RAB the paramilitary force which ironically the US/UK helped train. Right now BNP is no longer a credible opposition but they are trying to join forces with Islamists under the table to stay above water politically.

More when I find more time, please be patient.