RAB’s 'secret prison' more terrifying than DGFI: Commission 

The enquiry commission on enforced disappearance received a total of  1,600 complaints regarding incidents of enforced disappearances throughout the last one and a half decades under the previous Awami League government.

While looking into some 400 complaints, the commission came to know about eight 'secret prisons' that appeared to be more dreadful than those of other agencies. 

It was also learned that multiple agencies, including the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI), Detective Branch (DB), Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC), and the police, were involved in the incidents. 

The commission, formed by the interim government, made the disclosure in a press conference at its office in the capital’s Gulshan area on Tuesday. 

The commission chief, Justice Moyeenul Islam Chowdhury, said they received a total of 1,600 complaints over incidents that took place between 6 January 2009 and 5 August 2024. Till date, they have interviewed some 140 complainants. 

Speaking at the press conference, Sajjad Hossain, a commission member, said they analyzed 400 incidents and found the RAB to be involved in 172 incidents.  The Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s (DMP) CTTC was involved in 37 incidents, while the DB in 55 cases, DGFI in 26 cases, and the police were involved in 25 cases. 

There were 68 other incidents where the victims were picked up by plainclothesmen without citing any particular agencies or forces. 

The deadline for submitting applications was 31 October, but the commission is willing to receive more applications with reasonable explanations, said the commission chief. 

Detailing a secret prison of the RAB, a member of the commission and rights defender, Nur Khan, said they received evidence on how a victim of enforced disappearance notes down daily activities or leaves indications during their captivity. 

“Apart from this, we also come across names of some individuals. We heard that there was a cell within our close proximity and it was even worse than the Aynaghar, which we used to indicate a joint interrogation center. We have visited those,” he said. 

Nur Khan claimed that the RAB was in maintenance of the secret prison. “We have witnessed the prison… how cruelly the individuals were kept in the prison. There are cases where urinals were set up within cells measuring three and a half feet by four feet. They were captivated here day after day.”