Judges inspect Bangladesh secret prison where prosecutor says Tarique Rahman was tortured

Judges of Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal, prosecutors and defense lawyers inspected a secret detention facility Saturday where the tribunal’s chief prosecutor said Prime Minister Tarique Rahman was once held and tortured.

The facility, commonly known as “Aynaghor,” is located on the ground floor of a two-story building at the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence headquarters inside Dhaka Cantonment. It contains 26 narrow chambers where opposition figures and dissidents of the former Awami League government were allegedly detained and tortured.

“Mr. Tarique Rahman was also brought to one of the rooms of the GIC cell we inspected today, and he was tortured there,” the chief prosecutor said, citing witness accounts gathered during the investigation.

The prosecutor said investigators had also gathered evidence concerning other former detainees, including Humam Quader Chowdhury and Brigadier General Abdullahil Amaan Azmi.

Defense lawyers disputed whether the physical layout matched testimony from former detainees. They pointed to Azmi’s statement that he had been held without seeing light, air, the sun, moon or trees.

“Yet, the air-conditioned, tiled room shown today, measuring 17 feet by 21 feet, actually has two windows,” the defense lawyers said.

The previous Saturday, three judges from International Crimes Tribunal-1, prosecutors and defense lawyers inspected a separate secret detention facility operated by the Rapid Action Battalion, known as the Task Force for Interrogation cell.