Bangladeshi investigative journalist Tasneem Khalil has fled the country with his family for security reasons, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. They had previously spent a month in hiding after he was arrested and tortured in May.
Khalil, 26, is a journalist for the Dhaka-based Daily Star newspaper who conducts research for Human Rights Watch (HRW). According to his wife, four men in plainclothes who identified themselves as from the "joint task force" came to the door after midnight on May 11 in Dhaka, demanding to take Khalil away. They said they were placing Khalil "under arrest" and taking him to the Sangsad Bhavan army camp, outside the parliament building in Dhaka.
The men did not offer a warrant or any charges, Khalil's wife said. Using threatening language, they searched the house and confiscated Khalil's passport, two computers, documents, and two mobile phones. "It is an emergency; we can arrest anyone," one of the men said. Another asked if Khalil suffered from any particular physical ailments. They drove Khalil off in a jeep.
Agence France-Presse (AFP) said he had been questioned about messages that had been sent from his mobile phone and about comments he had posted on his blog (tasneemkhalil.com).
Khalil is a noted investigative journalist who has published several controversial exposes of official corruption and abuse, particularly by security forces. He assisted Human Rights Watch (HRW) in research for a 2006 report about torture and extrajudicial killings by Bangladesh security forces.
According to Bangladeshi human rights groups, the army has detained tens of thousands of people since a state of emergency was declared on January 11, 2007. A number of those detained are picked up in the middle of the night, as Khalil was, and then tortured.
In Bangladesh, security forces have long been implicated in torture and extrajudicial killings. The killings have been attributed to members of the army, the police, and the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), an elite anti-crime and anti-terrorism force. The Human Rights Watch report Khalil worked on, "Judge, Jury, and Executioner: Torture and Extrajudicial Killings by Bangladesh's Elite Security Force," focused on abuses by the RAB.
The interrogation centre . Khalil was taken to is an extension of the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI) headquarters in Dhaka cantonment that houses at least one torture chamber and a detention facility, acording to HRW. This is a full-time illegal detention and torture facility. Khalil saw sophisticated torture equipment and could hear other detainees screaming in pain. At least five DGFI officers took part in the torture sessions that left Khalil with severe injuries.
At one point he was photographed with a revolver and some bullets placed before him, suggesting that he was being set up for a faked “crossfire killing.” Before his release, Khalil was forced to make false confessions, and asked to sign documents and testify on video admitting to acts that could be considered treasonous, according to HRW.
