Please - Odhikar

into the room. They were those he was quarreling with on the street before RAB brought him to
their office. The woman, on entering the room, said, " He is still alive, kill him immediately."
Subsequently he came to know their names as Ashraf and Farida Yasmin. They were husband
and wife. Both of them were ASP of Police and were working in RAB. Afterwards, Bitan was
brought down to the ground floor from the second floor and kept blind-folded. By listening to
the talks around, he could understand that some high official had phoned to save him from RAB
atrocity. He was tortured for further 15/20 minutes despite the telephonic intervention to set him
free.
Bitan further informed Odhikar that his brother-in-law was Deputy Commissioner of North Zone
of Dhaka Metropolitan Police and it was due to his intervention that he (Bitan) was set free at
around 11 pm in the evening. Before his release, he was forced to sign blank piece of paper.
Initially he refused to do so but after some more physical torture, he was compelled to sign.
Bitan's wife Tania Sultana Joy (28) told Odhikar that at around 10 pm that evening, she came to
know that Bitan had been taken away by RAB. She then went to the RAB-1 office with one of
her relatives. After waiting there for long time, she was told that Bitan would be set free and that
she should leave the RAB-1 office. On hearing this, she came out of the office and was waiting
outside. Her relatives brought Bitan out of the office and took him into the car. She found his
two legs bleeding inside the car. Bitan was admitted into the Central Hospital where the on-duty
physicians expressed surprise at his physical condition. He could not move his legs, his total
body became inflated and a surgery had to be done on his left leg. His left knee was fractured
due to RAB torture. His asthma had also worsened.
An eyewitness of the incident, a staff of Janata Bank Uttara Corporate Branch, on condition of
anonymity, informed Odhikar that during the incident, he found a tall, healthy man quarrelling
with two/three persons. At one stage, that tall man plnched on the face of one of the others,
which immediately caused bleeding. After sometime, RAB forces in black uniform came and
took him away.
The security guard of a nearby house, Harmuz Ali, stated that he went to the spot at the last
stage of the incident and found RAB members trying to take a tall, healthy, blind-folded and
handcuffed man to their vehicle. He was beaten randomly when he refused to get into the car
and this caused him to tall down on the ground. Then RAB forcefully took him into their car and
drove away.
During the filing of this report, the victim Bitan was under treatment in the Central Hospital. The
concerned physician Dr. Obaidul Haque, informed Odhikar that his condition had improved but
signs of torture were found all over his body. He further commented that Bitan was hit,
particularly on his two legs, by something and heavy.
In this incident, two general diaries were filed in the Uttara police station. Sepoy Manik of RAB
filed a general diary on 16 July the number of which is 1202. Bitan's sister Khadiza Rahman
filed another general diary on 17 July the number of which is 1280. SI Abu Sayeed has been
made the investigation officer of the incident. He informed Odhikar that he would seek
permission from the Court of the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate for investigating the incident.
He would start investigation after getting the permission.
When contacted, RAB declined to provide any information on this.
Report 2005
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