ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCE

Witness recounts ordeal in ‘torture cell’ at ICT-1

STAFF CORRESPONDENT

A man detained in 2022 told a tribunal yesterday that he was taken to a windowless, black-walled cell measuring about four feet by four feet, where nails were allegedly fixed into the floor, and an electric chair stood in a corner.

“I slightly removed my blindfold and saw the scene. My heart sank. I realised something terrible was coming,” said Md Shafiqul Islam while testifying before International Crimes Tribunal-1 as the fourth prosecution witness in a crimes against humanity case.

Shafiqul, 38, a madrasa principal and imam of a mosque in Purbachal, said interrogators in the room demanded that he confess to links with militant groups.

“When I denied it, they beat me with sticks. They threatened to cut me into pieces and dump my body... I was convinced that my end was near,” he said.

“Out of fear, I held an officer’s feet and pleaded, ‘My child is only two months old. Don’t make him an orphan. Beat me as much as you want, but don’t kill me’,” Shafiqul said, breaking down in the tribunal.

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