Bangladeshi police have arrested a 23-year-old man following a televised documentary in which he alleged he was tortured while in the custody of Bangladesh's elite counterterrorism force on a charge of illegal alcohol possession.
Rights activists say they fear the arrest Sunday of Nafiz Mohammad Alam, a former gang member who had had past brushes with the law, could be an act of retaliation from the authorities after he described how members of the Rapid Action Battalion, or RAB, allegedly tortured people in custody. The documentary was produced by the Germany-based Deutsche Welle broadcaster and Netra News – a Sweden-based investigative journalism platform focusing on Bangladesh.
Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch's Asia division, said, “The arrest of whistle-blower Nafiz Mohammad Alam within hours of the release of an investigative report about RAB abuses, including his allegations of torture at RAB's hands, is profoundly disturbing and raises serious concerns about his safety.”
Long accused of rights violations
Human rights groups have long accused the RAB of thousands of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances. Since 2010, the groups have published dozens of reports alleging the RAB and other security agencies in Bangladesh were involved in serious human rights violations, mostly against political activists and dissidents opposed to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League-led government.
Although senior government officials in Bangladesh have denied accusations facing the RAB, the United States in late 2021 imposed human rights-related sanctions on the force along with six of its former and then-serving officers.
The Dhaka Metropolitan Police have denied his arrest had anything to do with the documentary. They say he was taken into custody in connection with a pornography-related case dating to 2021. They also say he broke the law by possessing alcohol without the required documents.
“When we arrested him on Sunday, we found that he illegally stocked alcohol at home and so we are going to file another suit against him,” the police statement said.
This is the second time Alam has faced arrest for illegal alcohol possession.
In 2021, the RAB arrested him for illegally stocking and selling foreign liquor. He was identified as an illegal alcohol seller.
A license is required to stock or sell alcohol in Bangladesh.
On April 3, Deutsche Welle broadcast the documentary Inside the Death Squad, on alleged extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and torture by RAB members.
The documentary featured personal accounts from Alam and others, including former RAB members.
Alam, whose identity was not hidden in the documentary, alleged that after he was arrested on the initial alcohol charge in 2021, he was tortured. In the documentary, he said he was beaten badly and given electric shocks. He also gave the description of what he called a “torture cell.”
Is the arrest reprisal?
Although the police maintain that Alam was arrested in connection with the pornography case, rights activists view the arrest as possible reprisal.
"Given the track records of Bangladesh’s law enforcement agencies under the Sheikh Hasina regime, we were somewhat apprehensive that the government would retaliate against Nafiz Mohammad Alam for revealing the details of the secret torture cells and detention facilities that the RAB operates in the country,” said Mohammad Ashrafuzzaman, liaison officer of the Hong Kong-based Asian Legal Resource Center.
“Alam, as a victim of torture under arbitrary detention, dared to reveal the ordeals he had gone through at the RAB torture cells. By torturing Nafiz in custody, the RAB officers committed a criminal offense under the country’s Torture and Custodial Death (Prevention) Act, 2013,” Ashrafuzzaman told VOA.
“The government should have independently probed all the torture, extrajudicial killing and enforced disappearance-related crimes, including the torture of Alam, committed by the RAB and act against the erring officials. Instead, the regime has detained the victim for speaking out against the RAB’s custodial torture,” Ashrafuzzaman added.
HRW’s Robertson said that the Bangladeshi authorities “have a solemn obligation to make sure that no harm comes to him” while he is in custody, and that “he is afforded access to his lawyers and his family members on a continuous basis.”
“RAB's stubborn refusal to take responsibility for the abuses committed by its members or consider serious reforms in the way it operates continue to leave a massive black mark on Bangladesh's human rights record,” Robertson added.
He said, “There needs to be concerted international pressure on PM Sheikh Hasina to hold RAB members accountable for the abuses they commit."
