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crimes by a tribunal during the AL regime.

During Azmi’s testimony, three of the 13 accused in the case -- Maj Gen Sheikh Md Sarwar Hossain and Brigadier Generals Md Mahbub Rahman Siddique and Ahmed Tanvir Majahar Siddique -- were present in the dock. Other accused, including deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina, are absconding.

Azmi said some 50-60 plainclothes men forcibly entered his Boro Moghbazar residence around 9:30pm on August 22, 2016, and demanded that he be handcuffed. He said they refused to identify themselves or produce an arrest warrant.

Fearing assault, he complied and was handcuffed, blindfolded and taken away with his head covered. One of them, whom he claimed to have recognised due to loosened blindfold, was then DGFI personnel Lt Col Makhsurul, who verbally abused him.

Despite being blindfolded, Azmi said gaps in the covering allowed him to discern the route and he became certain that he was taken to a secret detention centre near Station Officers’ Mess-B of the DGFI complex inside Dhaka Cantonment, where he was confined to Cell No-11, marked “VIP”.

He told the tribunal that he was commissioned into the Bangladesh Army in 1981 and lived at Station Officers’ Mess-B in 1982-83. “During my stay at the mess in 1982-83, I occasionally heard cries of agony coming from the JIC,” he said.

In his deposition, Azmi described his prolonged, harrowing ordeal.

“The quality of food was extremely poor. For six years and four months, I was never able to eat three meals a day,” he said.

He said medical care was grossly inadequate and that he suffered from persistent eye, ear and dental problems, as well as skin disease and gastric ailments. He also claimed to have lost consciousness four times, developed an acute kidney infection, contracted Covid-19, broken two teeth and struggled to read due to deteriorating eyesight.

Azmi further informed that earlier on June 24, 2009, the then AL government dismissed him from service without charge, investigation or trial, stripped him of all pension benefits, barred him from entering cantonment areas, and kept him under intelligence surveillance and harassment for more than seven years before abducting him.

The tribunal fixed today for recording the remainder of Azmi’s deposition.