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me and took me away,” he told the tribunal. “They asked, ‘When you were outside, didn’t you see sack-bound bodies floating in canals and wetlands? Didn’t you see bodies being found frequently on railway tracks?’”
He said the captors warned him: “If you ever do this again, we will put you inside a sack and dump you in a pond.”
Nazimuddin said he was abducted on May 25, 2016, from Mirpur after plainclothes men intercepted his motorcycle near the BRTA office and forced him into a microbus.
He alleged that the men took Tk 1,00,000, two iPhones, his wallet, and personal documents before blindfolding and handcuffing him.
The witness said he later realised he was being held inside the DGFI headquarters detention facility. During interrogation, he was repeatedly questioned about Facebook posts critical of the then government, as well as his political associates.
When he denied links with others, he said he was tortured.
Nazimuddin said the walls of the cell were covered with names, phone numbers, and desperate messages left by other detainees.
He also named several individuals whom he claimed were detained in nearby cells.
After five months in secret detention, Nazimuddin said he was moved through several Rab facilities before being taken to Chattogram.
He alleged that he was later shown arrested in staged drives, with firearms and ammunition planted earlier, and was made an accused in three cases.
He said he spent 18 months in jail before securing bail in 2018. He later left for Saudi Arabia, citing continued harassment by Awami League activists and the administration, and returned to Bangladesh in September 2024.
Nazimuddin urged the tribunal to punish those responsible for his detention, torture, harassment, and what he described as “false cases”.
Meanwhile, the prosecution yesterday began arguments before ICT-2 in a crimes against humanity case against Awami League Joint General Secretary Mahbubul Alam Hanif and three other party leaders over the killing of six people in Kushtia during the July uprising.