Reportage
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Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus along with other advisers visits one of the secret detention centres, also known as Aynaghar or 'House of Mirrors', in the capital's Agargaon area on Wednesday. Photo: Collected
Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus has described the secret torture cells (known as Aynaghar) as horrific after visiting three of those.
"If I want to narrate it can be said that it is a horrific scene! Everything that happened there was dreadful. What I have heard is unbelievable! I think is it our world? Our society?" he told reporters after visiting three spots in Dhaka that were previously used as "torture cells and secret prisons".
It was the sample how they established Al-Jāhiliyyah (The Age of Ignorance), he said.
"I have heard from those who were victims of brutalities. There is no explanation. They were picked up from roads, and explosives were placed in vehicles and were branded as militants, terrorists. Now I have come to know there are many more torture cells across the country," he said.
Chief Adviser's Press Secretary Shafiqul Alam said thousands of victims of enforced disappearances were kept -- some for eight-nine years -- by security forces of the Sheikh Hasina regime in the Aynaghars, the secret prisons.
The Human Rights Watch has said Hasina herself ordered enforced disappearances and extrajudicial murders, Alam said.
Advisers Dr Asif Nazrul, Syeda Rizwana Hasan, Adilur Rahman Khan, Asif Mahmud, Mahfuj Alam and Nahid Islam, among others, were present.
Members of the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances, victims, local and international media accompanied the Chief Adviser during the visit in the spots located in Dhaka's Agargaon, Kachukhet and Uttara areas.
The Chief Adviser was shown an "electric chair" used in a torture cell in Agargaon.
Enforced disappearance victims also talked to the Chief Adviser during his visit to torture cells and secret prisons.
Chief Adviser's Press Secretary Shafiqul Alam briefed the media at the Foreign Service Academy on Wednesday afternoon, sharing details of the Chief Adviser's visit to Aynaghar, which he described as a "horrible scene".
Chief Adviser's Deputy Press Secretaries Apurba Jahangir and Abul Kalam Azad Majumder, Senior Assistant Press Secretary Foyez Ahammad, and Assistant Press Secretary Suchismita Tithi were also present.
Quoting the Chief Adviser, Alam said, "The number of victims who described their ordeal to me seemed unbelievable... the extent of their suffering and the sheer number of enforced disappearances was beyond comprehension."
Alam explained that the victims had been confined in chambers smaller than chicken coops, where they were subjected to torture for months without basic rights.
"This was a crime against all of us. We allowed it to happen," the Chief Adviser said, stressing that a society unable to overcome such extreme repression would fail to sustain itself.
The Chief Adviser expressed his gratitude to the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances for publishing its report, calling it an important document for the nation.
He urged that the issue be included in textbooks to educate future generations.
Prof Yunus reiterated that all those responsible for the incidents of enforced disappearances would be brought to justice.
During his visit, the Chief Adviser toured three locations in Aynaghar, the notorious secret prison from the era of the previous Sheikh Hasina government.
Alam said Prof Yunus visited each secret torture cell, where victims shared their harrowing experiences of detention.
He also said there were 700 to 800 such Aynaghars across the country, all of which would be uncovered.
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