February 14, 2025
Dhaka – Two things that happened last Wednesday two things happened – Chief consultant visited “Aynaghar” (House of Mirror), a secret torture cell established by security and intelligence agencies to limit, interrogate, psychological torture, derogatory, physical torture, and physically torture a group of chosen opponents political governments want to eliminate or at least torture and scare the surrendered dissidents.
On the same date, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) reported on the long-standing report of the Sheikh Hasina government's handling of the July uprising and the killings. The mission of the United Nations fact-finding quoted senior security officials as saying: “The Prime Minister himself told security forces officials to kill protesters to calm protesters and specifically asked for the leader of the arrest of protesters. The report quoted a July 19, 2024 A testament to a meeting. This, along with statements made to the press on the same day by Party Secretary-General Obaidul Quader, issued an order to the security forces to order “shoot,” to order “fire,” reveals a demonic mentality that seems to rule the former prime minister’s mind. The previous day On July 18, the interior minister presided over a meeting of the “core committee” and told the BGB commander that it would “more easy to order the use of deadly force.”
There is nothing to reveal the cruel level our intelligence agencies have dropped to, rather than the chief consultant’s visit to “Aynaghar”. We owe it to Sweden-based Netra News, which broke news in 2022 about the secret torture center established by DGFI torture torture in order to torture political opponents. A week later, we brought the news. Those of us who operate within the country are greatly restricted and have the courage to see some Bangladesh journalists do unimaginable things.
When we are bothered, written and condemned what happened, the real challenge is to take effective steps to prevent everything from happening again. OHCHR has made some crucial suggestions that we must implement now, which have been blocked in the past. We hope the spirit of the July uprising will ensure that nothing like this happens now.
A crucial suggestion is to reform the 1861 Colonial Police Act. Even after 53 years of independence, it is incredible that we still get along with it. For years we have asked police reforms, especially to train them to become the power of the people, rather than become violent acts against them. They need to be trained in modern strategies to deal with protests and control crowds. Given our history of vibrant and politically relevant student movements, our police officers should receive special training for peaceful crowd control. Instead, they retained the colonial-era habit of violently attacking protesters, beating them and resorting to deadly weapons. Then, of course, there is torture in detention, resulting in many deaths.
We have protested for decades of use of deadly weapons to disperse people. Neither of our elected governments attempted to reform the police, although our two major political parties (Awami League and BNP) suffered victims of police brutality in opposition. In this regard, the recommendations of establishing an independent commission to investigate police violations of the law, modernize investigative technologies, reduce large-scale criminal charges and arrests, and minimize reliance on forced confessions that require urgent enforcement. Establishing a fair, transparent and performance-based national police commission should also act quickly.
The proposals on institutionalized impunity and political judiciary, establishing a truly independent judiciary reflect the long-term expressed desire of our people. Recommendations to establish independent mechanisms for recruiting judges, protect intimidation and guarantee term of office must also be implemented urgently.
Establishing independent public prosecutor services and witness protection programs will help distribute justice.
The most serious problem in the UN report is the use and abuse of intelligence agencies of today's political masters, especially DGFI and NSI. “Aynaghar” and torture centers will not be set up unless DGFI and others comply. The related question is: do they have any choice?
DGFI is primarily responsible for members of the armed forces, but is not reported to the Army hierarchy. It reports to the Prime Minister’s Office and therefore must comply with the orders of today’s political masters. So the key question is: what can the institution do if the order is illegally active, because establishing “Aynaghars” takes the largest example as an example. Its accomplices in enforced disappearances, human rights violations, arbitrary detention and many other abuses are well known. The truth is that all governments, including military and civilians, provide DGFI for their political goals. But under the leadership of Sheikh Hasina, it reached the most compulsory height. It is used not only to intimidate, torture and punish political opponents, but it is also used to fulfill the agenda of infamous private companies, such as capturing banks and securing profitable contracts. This leads to huge corruption. This abuse of this important intelligence agency is closely related to our national security and has greatly damaged not only its image and reputation, but also its integrity, independence and ability to serve the country.
Our view is that all our intelligence agencies, especially DGFI and NSI, must prevent future elected government abuse. This is the moment to do so. The past governments did not do this. The institutions of the future are the most convenient tools to oppress the opposition and implement highly partisan goals, as these institutions are the most convenient tools.
Political powers also use DGFI to intimidate free and independent media. Instructing private companies not to advertise in Daily Star and prothom alo under the direction of the government of Sheikh Hasina. This informal “ban” lasted for eight years, starting in 2016. Media organizations were shocked to observe DGFI's participation in rigging elections such as Dru, Duj, Bfuj, Press Club, including participants who censor TV talk shows.
In an obsession with the remaining power, Sheikh Hasina's government distorted and abused all institutions, including the judiciary, bureaucracy, police and intelligence agencies. This helped to build the fascist ruling structure, and we have now been released by the uprisings of the people led by students.
To protect our important intelligence agencies from naked abuse, we must establish legal and institutional frameworks to prevent their future abuse, thus protecting these important national security agencies from politicization.
Most importantly, an agency governance structure (and clear channels for communication, oversight and accountability) must be set up to provide clear authorization for all intelligence agencies so that each agency and its staff know what they are going to do, and Their mission. This will make each institution and its chief’s rights and legal guarantees refuse to perform any task beyond its mission. The ambiguity of the current mandate allows political leaders to abuse them. In today’s world, the term “safety” is used to justify actions that create an atmosphere of fear and intimidation. It must also be mentioned that some over-zealous people in these institutions allow this abuse because it gives them the opportunity to use the situation to achieve personal annoyance. After all, a sense of infinite power triggers many things that are inaction within a person.
We must establish an independent democratic oversight agency that will help them manage them better and prevent their political, partisan, and sometimes personal abuse. Regarding budgets and their utilization, trust transparency must also be available. Around the world, there are strong intelligence agencies that are under surveillance by parliament or other independent supervisory bodies. All intelligence agencies (DGFI, NSI, SB, DB) will benefit from this oversight, which will help them operate independently to serve the national interests rather than partisan interests.
With the gradual collapse of the law-based world order, the necessity and relevance of intelligence agencies, especially those associated with defense agencies, is greater than ever. We acknowledge this need. However, we must also ensure that these institutions are trained, equipped and raised to global standards. To do this, we must eliminate the political and partisan influence on these key institutions.
Just as we value these agencies and need them to serve us better in dealing with security issues, we also need infrastructure related to law and governance to prevent the abuse and abuse we have witnessed and suffered in recent years.
