BANGLADESH: Extreme torture, child abuse and an extrajudicial killing in Bangladesh as Navy runs rampant

Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received shocking information from local human rights group ODHIKAR regarding the murder of Mr. Khabirul Islam Dulal, Commissioner of Ward No. 6 of the Char Fashion Municipality in Bhola district, allegedly caused by a brutal assault by naval officers on 20 February 2007. Mr. Dulal was arbitrarily arrested from his office by a team of the Bangladesh Navy led by Lieutenant Mr. S M Reza.  The victim was handcuffed, blind-folded and assaulted in public by the officers. On top of this, the navy committed grave crimes against the community including the torture of women, child abuse, theft, intimidation and engaged in corrupt practices. Meanwhile, the family has received no justice, no investigation has been launched, no journalists are reporting the case and they have received no financial compensation.

CASE DETAILS:

On 20 February 2007, at around 10:00 am, a group of 11 naval officers, 9 of whom were in plain clothes and  two who were armed and in uniform, went to the Char Fashion Municipality office located within Bhola district. The team went to the office room of the Commissioner of Ward No. 6 of the Municipality, Mr. Khabirul Islam Dulal, who was in a meeting with local citizens. One of the group members introduced himself as Mr. S M Reza who is the Lieutenant of the Bangladesh Navy Contingent deployed in Char Fashion. Following the command of Lt. Reza, the Navy personnel asked the victim to hand over the arms allegedly in his possession. When Mr. Dulal denied possessing any, the navy personnel severely beat, handcuffed and blindfolded him in the meeting. The Navy team pushed Mr. Dulal into one of their vehicles and brought him to the temporary camp in the upazilla Dak Banglo (a public rest house in the town used by the visiting government officials).

Over the next 4 hours, the commander, Lt. Reza allegedly kept physically assaulting the victim with roller sticks, fists and boots. The victim was kept handcuffed and blind folded for almost the entire period. At around 3:30 pm, the navy took the victim to one of his aunt’s house at Masterpara village in the Char Fashion municipality. At the house, the soldiers used abusive languages and threatened the family at gun point, including her 26 year-old and 16 year-old daughters.

Lt. Reza then ordered the navy officers to ransack the house. The victim was brought to the backyard and was again beaten by soldiers. The officers kept searching in the house for about 20 minutes.

At around 4:00 pm, the officers once again blind folded and handcuffed the victim before proceeding to his house. Lt. Raza who was holding the rope that tied the victim’s hands together, ordered the two armed soldiers to ransack the house. Lt. Raza again beat Dulal with a roller stick in the yard, this time in front of his family and relatives. At this time, Dulal’s cousin’s wife, Mrs. Parul Begum, attempted to save the man; however, officers pointed their guns at her head while two soldiers beat her with sticks on the lower part of the body.

Unbelievably, the soldiers also beat an 11-years-old girl named Moni who was carrying Parul’s 6-month-old son. A soldier pressed against Moni’s throat and strangled her. The 6-month-old infant, Abir, was thrown around 10 meters away from Moni’s lap. While this was happening, Parul’s son-in-law Mr. Nur Uddin and his brother Mr. Mosleh Uddin came to visit the house and were also beaten by the soldiers.

Dulal’s two sons, eight year-old Ziaur Rahman Jim and three year-old Jibon, were held at gun point while their mother, Mrs. Jasmine Akhter Khuku, was beaten in front of the family. Dulal’s aunt Mrs. Moyful Begum and Dulal’s 58-years-old mother Mrs. Hajera Khatun were also beaten by the navy personnel. Mrs. Khuku alleges that Lt. S M Reza beat her on the hips with stick; pushed her against the wall and hurt her right eye and foot, before knocking her to the ground. Also, about 1.5 million Taka (USD 21,740) was stolen from the house, money that was to be used as payment for labourers working on the “Abashan” and “Adarsha Gram” housing projects. Gold ornaments worth approximately 1 million Taka (USD 14,500) and belonged to the projects contractors were also taken from the house.

After the raid on the house, two Navy personnel lifted Dulal’s body and put a long roller stick under his arms, since Dulal’s hands were tied behind his back. The men put the body by the side of a pond outside Dulal’s house. Meanwhile, Dulal who had been unconscious returned to his senses and asked for water. A Naval staff brought dirty water from the pond in a pot and poured in Dulal’s mouth. Then, Dulal was taken to Mrs. Fatema Begum’s home. As Dulal could not walk by himself, the Navy personnel held his arms and dragged his legs on the street. The Navy personnel asked Mrs. Fatema to give up the guns suspiciously kept in the house. Fatema then gave them a toy pistol, which her son plays with. Later on, Dulal was taken to the house of a former Member of Parliament (MP) and a leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) Mr. Nazim Uddin Alam, who was not at home at that time. The security guards at the house Mr. Hafizur Rahman was also beaten by the Navy soldiers.

Then Lt. Reza brought Dulal to the rooftop and ordered him to stand up alone; however, Dulal was not able to do it by himself and fell down on the floor. Lt. Reza kicked him and ordered the soldiers to collect red chilli powder, salt and rice husks from a next door neighbour named Mrs. Helena’s. The spices were mixed together with water in a bucket and poured in Dulal’s mouth. About 20 minute later, Mr. Reza forced Mrs. Helena to give hot water, which was also poured into Dulal’s mouth. Dulal’s relatives claim that many people living in the adjacent houses including the house of Mrs. Rina Khanom, a municipal commissioner of Reserved Ward No. 3 of the Char Fashion Municipality, had witnessed the scene of torture on the roof of Mr. Alam’s house.

Later at around 9:30 pm, navy personnel picked up Dulal in a vehicle and took to the Navy camp. Arriving at the camp, Lt. Reza kicked Dulal’s motionless body was handcuffed and blindfolded in the back of the vehicle. Then, he held the rope and proceeded to kick Dulal’s body severely and dragged him toward the nearby pond. As witnessed by many locals, Dulal’s body rolled into the pond. For roughly five to six minutes, the body was under water. Later, Dulal’s body was taken to the Emergency Unit of the Char Fashion Upazilla Health Complex. The Medical Officer (MO), Dr. Ekramul Kabir, found that Dulal was already dead. The MO then lodged a complaint with the Char Fashion police station. In his application, Dr. Kabir mentioned that at 10:55 pm, Navy personnel brought the dead body of Mr. Dulal to the hospital. It was alleged that Dr. Kabir was forced by Lt. Reza of the Navy to lodge the complaint with the local police.

The Officer-in-Charge (OC) of the Char Fashion police station, Mr. Zakir Hossain Fakir, recorded this case as an Unnatural Death (UD) case (No. 6, date: 20 February 2007) following Dr. Kabir’s compliant at 11:45 pm. The OC, however, denied that the incident involved arbitrary arrest, torture and murder. However, the OC does note that when he went to the navy camp, S.M. Reza had refused to hand over the body so that he could return it to the victim’s family.

According to a fact-finding report prepared by human rights organization ODHIKAR, “Doctor Ekramul Kabir of Char Fashion Upazila Health Complex also noted that Dulal died long before being admitted to the hospital. Observing the state of the body, he requested other four doctors for their opinion. After that they sent a report to the Char Fashion Police Station. In answer to a question Doctor Ekramul Kabir told ODHIKAR that there was a lot of water inside the dead body and the marks of ropes were clearly demarcated around the wrists. He also noticed that pieces of skin were falling off the body due to severe bruising and that the testicles were also bruised. Dulal’s throat was distended, and some of his toes and finger nails were missing too.”

The following morning (21 February 2007), the on-duty police also refused to return the body of the victim to the relatives of Dulal at the hospital. Magistrate Mr. Foyez Ahmed prepared the Inquest Report of Dulal’s dead body at the Char Fashion hospital. The Inquest Report mentioned injuries on the legs, hands and in the back. A medial board comprising of Dr. Rathindra Nath and two others conducted the post mortem of the body at the Bhola Sadar Hospital morgue at around 4:30 pm. The complete post mortem report is pending until the viscera examination report is conducted in a chemical laboratory in Dhaka.

Dulal’s father-in-law, Mr. Shahidul Haque, alleges that the Dome of the Bhola Sadar Hospital, namely Mr. Bhanu, demanded a bribe from Shahidul if the deceased’s family wanted a “fair post mortem report”. This was done in front of Dr.Rathindra Nath, who did not comment or say anything to the Dome. Mr. Shahidul, then, allegedly responded the Dome to lodge a complaint against him with the Magistrate’s Court. 
Although the dead body was handed over to the family from the hospital morgue at around 5:15 pm the Char Fashion police finally gave the body to the family at around 7:40 pm at the police station. But, the family had to pay the transportation cost of the dead body from Bhola district town to the Char Fashion police station. 
On February 22, the relatives buried the dead body of Dulal in their family graveyard. Two naval staff also joined the rituals in plain cloths while some soldiers were patrolling around the area.

Mr. Shahidul alleged that he was told not to announce about the funeral to the public by the Chairman of the Char Fashion Municipality Mr. Amirul Islam Mintis before the victim’s funeral. It has also been reported that the Chairman told the victim’s family to sign on a blank paper that the death of Dulal was “unnatural” and urged them not to lodge any complaint against the Navy officers about the murder of Dulal. Then the Chairman urged the family to leave the town and do not seek any further proceedings regarding the death of Dulal.

It has also been reported that the Police officers from the Char Fashion police station also urged the family to compromise with the Navy officers about the case. Mr. Shahidul also received a phone call from an Assistant Sub Inspector (ASI) Zakir Hossain of the Char Fashion police station who told him that he should not pursue any further persecutions against the Navy officers and offered money in exchange for his silence. 
Mr. Shahidul and the wife of Dulal have lodged a complaint with the office of the Superintendent of Police (SP) of Bhola district on 26 February 2007. Both of them are asking the police officers to record the case of Dulal however the police officers allegedly refused to register the case. On 27 February 2007, Mr. Shahidul submitted another petition to the Upazilla Nirbahi (sub-district executive) Officer (UNO) seeking further post mortems of Dulal’s dead body by impartial medical doctors. The application was addressed to the Deputy Commissioner of Bhola.

Meanwhile, Mr. Shahidul further alleges that he received threats to his mobile phone from unidentified callers, who warned him not to step forward regarding this case. On 6 March 2007, at around 11:00 pm, Shahidul received two calls from phone number +8801720494851 and +8801725440257. Mr. Shahidul, along with his daughter Mrs. Jasmin Akhter Khuku (Dulal’s wife) and her two sons are now in hiding. Mrs. Khuku is now questioning whether they will have right to achieve justice. She is extremely worried about the future of her two minor-aged sons as she has no assets left by her husband and has no job.

It is also alleged that the Navy officers threatened human rights defenders, who conducted the fact-finding mission regarding the death of Dulal. According to the report of ODHIKAR, “The ODHIKAR fact-finding officer visited the Navy Contingent to talk with Lieutenant SM Reza. Lieutenant Reza tried to shake him off and ultimately threatened to have him arrested as a member of the JMB (an underground radical group). He claimed that he did not have the intention to kill or arrest Dulal and that if that was their intention; they would have done so in ‘crossfire’.  He commented that Dulal was not meant to live a long life and met his fate by drowning.”

Local journalists also alleged that they received threats from the Navy and were told to only write that “Dulal jumped into a pond and died when trying to flee”. The Navy personnel also threatened the local journalists that they would kill them like Dulal if they disclose anything more regarding the murder.

However, Lieutenant Commander Ashraf of Char Fashion Navy Contingent told ODHIKAR’s fact-finding team that Khabirul Islam Dulal was a threat to the people of his locality. Dulal was arrested on the basis of a number of verbal and written complaints from the people of the locality against him, including toll collection, harassment of women, land-grabbing and other anti-social as well as criminal offences. Mr. Ashraf claims that the complaints were preserved in the Khulna and Chittagong Navy headquarters. According to Dulal’s statement they conducted an arms recovery operation in various places; an Indian pistol was recovered from the house belonging to Fatima, beside his home. On recovering the pistol, they returned with him to the contingent and untied his wrists in order to take a picture of him with the pistol. Dulal tried to flee but fell into the pond. He was rescued and sent to the hospital, where he died.

SUGGESTED ACTION:

Please write to the relevant Bangladesh authorities listed below urging them to take prompt action to investigate the conduct of the Navy personnel of the Char Fashion Contingent in the alleged arbitrary arrest, detention and extrajudicial killing of Mr. Khabirul Islam Dulal. Please also send your letters to the relevant UN agencies listed below.

To support this case, please click here: SEND APPEAL LETTER