Statement by Asian Human Rights Commission
A Special Appeal to all Human Rights organizations the world over requesting intervention to ensure the protection, genuine inquiries into the gouging of eyes and attempted assassination of a human rights defender in Bangladesh
(May 03, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka Guardian) The Hong Kong based, the Asian Human Rights Commission calls upon all human rights organization the world over to respond to a brutal attack on a well-known human rights defender in Bangladesh, FMA Razzak and his brother by an army officer and his family. The details of the assault are given below. So far, despite of complaints no inquiries have started relating to this brutal attack in which Mr. Razzak was left for dead.
We request your immediate intervention with the government of Bangladesh to ensure genuine inquiries into these attacks and also to provide protection for Mr. FMA Razzak and his family. You may also contact the embassy of your country in Bangladesh or your foreign ministry and request their intervention on behalf of this human rights defender.
We provide below a transcription of a recording of a statement made by FMA Razzak. This statement was video recorded at the hospital where he is receiving treatment in the evening on30 April 2011. The attack took place at 10PM on 29 April.
In a previous statement the Asian Human Rights Commission provided details of the assault, kidnapping an attempt at gouging out the victim's eyes and the attempted assassination. Mr. FMA Razzak is now hospitalised in critical condition and is currently undergoing surgery. His eventual recovery will require at least six months of continued treatment and physiotherapy.
In this statement Mr. Razzak himself gives a detail account of the ordeal he suffered through.
"Yesterday (29 April 2011, at about 10pm), I left from my current residence in Paikgachha municipal town for the Paikgachha Bazar, accompanying my younger brother Bodiuzzaman by a motorbike. I wanted to use the internet from a shop to communicate with friends from human rights organizations. I also planned to meet the senior police and administrative officials, including the DIG of police, SP and DC in Khulna in the following morning, along with a number of local elites and public representatives of Paikgachha. I wanted to tell the senior officials during that planned meeting that I have been ousted from home with my family and have been hiding here and there to save our lives for the last two and half months, but that the whole administration maintains silence despite the fact that I appealed to them on several occasions.
As part of the preparation, I was trying to rent a car for the following morning so that I would not get attached in public buses that stops almost everywhere. I went to the Dhaka Bus Stand of Paikgachha. There were a number of persons there, including Mr. Amzad Hossain Golder, former mayor of Paikgachha municipality and a leader of Chhatra Dal (opposition student wing); Mr. Salim, councilor of municipality; and Mr. Shankar Kumar Dhali, a contractor. While I was talking with these persons I saw around 40 people arrived behind us in a two-engine-van. Most among them were from my own village (Godaipur) and close associates of Kazal, who is the younger brother to Major Mustafizur Rahman Bokul.
They all took position surrounding us. Immediately, I realized that unexpected things were going to happen. I requested the persons whom I was discussing with to stay, saying, "Please do not leave me alone here!" But, Kazal whispered something to the former mayor and councilors of municipality, and I believe that they were asked to leave the place. They (the former mayor and councilors) observed their attitudes and left us (my brother and I) leaving within the circle of the gang when my younger brother and I did not have any possibility to flee away.
Immediately, the gang jumped on me. They began to indiscriminately hit me: my head, back, chest, hands, legs -- every parts of the body. Kazal and his gang tried to push fingers into my eyes to gauge the eyes out. I tried to block the eyes with my hands. Then, they severely pressed on my testicles. I was about to die! I had to move my hands from the eyes to the testicles at that moment. Immediately, they pushed fingers and rod into my eyes and kept moving the rod inside the eyes. They tried to take out my eyeballs.
Simultaneously, many others were hitting me with rod and stick. I cried out for help. But nobody responded to my cry. Only my younger brother tried to rescue me. But the gang caught him and brutally beat him, taking him a few yards far from where I was being beaten. I had no scope to follow or understand what was happening to my brother. I could do nothing to save myself. They knocked me down the ground and jumped on my body and hit me as they wished.
They constantly hit my right leg, which broke on the scene as I fell. When I tried to block the hits with my right hand, they hit my right hand, which also broke. I became completely motionless. They took away my mobile phone and some money that I had in my pockets. I was almost dead there.
They were talking about my condition, asking whether I was dead or alive. I could hear their conversation as I still had my senses. Then I decided to keep holding my breaths so that they do not hit me any further, although they continued hitting me in that condition. During the ongoing brutality Kazal called his brother Major Mustafizur Rahman from his cell phone. (The victim heard the full conversation as the phone was set to 'speaker phone' so that the other participants could hear the instructions).
Kazal said, "Brother, the kuttar bachha (son of dog) is caught in our hands now!"
Major Mustafizur replied, "Only caught? What do mean? Break his legs and hands! Take out his eyes!"
In response Kazal replied, "We have already taken out his eyeballs making him blind and have broken his hands and legs!"
"Where are you now?" asked the Major.
"We are in front of the paribahan (long route bus) counter", Kazal replied.
The major instructed his brother saying, "Throw his body into some ditch!"
Then they put me into a van and started driving to unknown destination. I could see only very hazily at that time. After arriving at certain place they all shouted in joy. I was unsure about what was going to happen then. I tried to see and realized that it was the house of Major Mustafizur Rahman, where his father Abdur Rouf Sarder, uncles Rezaul Sarder and Rabiul Sarder, mother and all other members of their family along with a huge group of people who have previous record of having convicted in criminal cases were present.
Kazal shouted to them, saying that, "Kuttar bachha (son of dog) has been brought here!"
All awaiting people shouted in reply saying, "Well done!"
Then every one of Major Mustafizur's family started to hit me with the sticks they already had in their hands. In a dying condition I could only hear the noise and words of the people. I was bleeding from my eyes. Some of the women from the village who were present there cried in fear when they saw my face. Kazal’s gang then beat some of the women for crying and chased them away.
Then they started discussing what to do with my body, as they assumed that I had already died. They again called Major Bokul and asked what to do at that point.
Bokul said, "I am asking the RAB (Rapid Action Battalion) in Khulna; RAB will take him and put an arms with his body and publicise that he was killed in crossfire. Police may send him (me) to hospital, which will spoil everything."
Kazal said to his brother, "RAB will take a long time to arrive here if they drive now from Khulna. Before that time if any unexpected thing happens how to solve it?"
Then Bokul suggested calling the Paikgachha police and said that he will also discuss with the police.
Kazal called the OIC (Officer-in-Charge) Enamul of the Paikgachha police. All these conversations were made handset-free to let the crowd hear the instructions from Major Bokul and the police officers. Everyone kept me encircled while I was lying on the ground.
OC Enamul asked, "Kazal, what are you doing now?"
"We have already taken out his eyes and broken his hands and legs", Kazal replied.
The OC said, "Very good! Bhalo Kaz korecho (a great job)! Don't kill him on the scene; I am sending police there."
Then, they stopped further beating until the police, including Sub Inspector (SI) Idris Ali and SI Tarob, arrived there.
The police pushed my body slightly and called me, "Razzak Bhai, Razzak Bhai! How are you?"
They called to me in the same way for a while. But I maintained holding my breath. At one stage, they started asking each other whether I was already dead or not.
The police said to Kazal's family, "If he is dead, then your whole family will be in trouble!"
The police worriedly asked each other what they could do.
The father and uncles of Major told the police, "You take his body away."
The police refused to take the responsibility.
The police officers said, "We cannot take him at this condition. You caught and tortured him. So you have to take him up to the hospital."
Then the army officer’s relatives said to the police, "The information has already been spread around in the area. If we go to the hospital carrying his body, how shall we return home? If the people attack us, how shall we be protected?"
Two police officers told them, "We will provide security to you staying in the front and at the end (of the journey) for your round trip to and from hospital. Take him to hospital."
Accordingly, I was taken to the hospital. I was left on the floor of the hospital without any treatment or attempts to confirm my death. Kazal and his gang waited outside of the hospital.
Meanwhile, my relatives arrived at the hospital. I heard from the later that they closed all the gates of the hospital with the help of the local neighbors and tried to get confirmation about my condition, about whether I was alive or dead. The doctors started to examine me. When they found that I was alive and in a highly critical condition they arranged the ambulance to send me to the Khulna Medical College Hospital. From outside, Kazal and his gang observed that the ambulance was being prepared to take me elsewhere and they became sure that I was not dead. They took position in front of the gate of the hospital, declaring that they want my dead body. Kazal announced that they will not leave any scope for treatment.
By that time, the leaders of the Paikgachha Press Club, including its president, along with journalists and local elite persons entered into the hospital. The situation became very alarming for the police, who feared that direct clash may start shortly, and they told the journalists and local elites that the police will escort the ambulance to leave the jurisdiction of the Paikgachha area. But, before doing that, another team of the police escorted Kazal's gang to return to their place safely as the local public became outraged.
The police vehicle and journalists escorted my ambulance until the Godaipur area. In the midst of tremendous fear of further attack on the road, with insecurity, the ambulance reached the hospital in Khulna city. Prior to my arrival, the doctors of the Khulna hospital were pressured by the army officer, Major Bokul, and his colleagues. So the doctors did not allow my relatives to take me out of the ambulance. The doctors came to the door of the ambulance and expressed their inability to treat me there. They said that my condition is extremely serious and could not be treated in that hospital. They formally referred me to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital. My family then arranged another ambulance from Khulna city for driving to Dhaka.
By around 10AM we reached the Dhaka Medical College Hospital, where the treatment process started very slowly with pushing saline. Meanwhile, a large number of media gathered at the hospital. As I tried to respond to one or two questions from the journalists regarding the identity of the attackers, including the army and police officers, a large number of intelligence agency people surrounded me. The people from intelligence agencies kept quizzing me endlessly, which made me afraid for my life. I suspected that they will kill me by slow-poisoning and by depriving me of proper treatment. I became afraid of further kidnapping by them from the hospital. My dead body could be disappeared in the usual way.
I told some of the journalists that I appealed to the Prime Minister, Home Minister, Chief Justice, IGP (Inspector General of Police), DIG (Deputy Inspector General) of Police and the chief of army explaining the situation that my family and I have been facing for two and a half months. I have been ousted from my ancestral home for last two and half months due to continuous attacks from the same group who did this to me.
My wife and I wrote letters to the Chief of the Army seeking proper investigation of Major Bokul's involvement in instigating attacks against me and my family. Not a single institution or official from any level of the country's government has responded to my appeals in last two and half months. The major of the army and the local police continuously supported the attackers to do this for killing me. Such deadly attack on me for the purpose of killing me is not the end.
In the hospital I get threats that Kazal's gang is going to kidnap and kill my children, who are hiding elsewhere. My whole family and I have been under extreme insecurity. On the contrary, these attackers, who belong to the anti-liberation force in the country while the current government of is run by the pro-independence Awami League is protecting a Major, who was personally a leader of Islami Chhatra Shibir (a student wing of Jamat-e-Islami, a pro Islamist political party) and whose family members are also leaders of Jamat-e-Islami. The criminals are getting more organized by the direct supports from the police, RAB of Khulna and other administration to make environment to kill me.
I have made my utmost demand to the government of Bangladesh, international human rights organizations and everyone to ensure my security.
During the conversation the police officers said, "Break his hand into pieces so that he cannot write any further! Beat and take out his eyes and give him lessons about humanity!"
As a journalist and human rights activist, I expose the injustice. Is that a crime? Don't I have the fundamental rights enshrined by the constitution? Why have I been homeless for the last two and half months, when all levels of the administration have been informed about it? Why I did not get justice despite repeated requests to the authorities? I want to learn from the government whether the country is operated and ruled by any government or ruled by the terrorists of Jamat-Shibir? I want justice."
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