Allegations of Beating at July Foundation Under the Pretext of ‘Interrogation’

Several individuals have accused the July Shahid Smriti Foundation of torturing them under the guise of interrogation. The victims claim they were summoned on the pretext of verifying allegations that they had been wrongly included in the government list as ‘July warriors’, and were physically and mentally abused to force confessions. A Foundation official described the incident as “regrettable”.

The Foundation’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) has stated that no one will be summoned for questioning at the Foundation in the future; if necessary, law enforcement authorities will handle any verification.

Md. Jahangir Alam, one of the victims, said that on 27 May, he was summoned to the Foundation office. There, a man named Shahid allegedly beat him with a GI pipe and pressured him to confess to being a ‘false injured person’. The abuse reportedly occurred in a room at the far end of the office.

Jahangir recounted: “I requested them to hand me over to the police instead of beating me, but they did not stop. Later, with the intervention of a political leader, I was released through the back gate of the Foundation.”

Jahangir had previously been injured in the head by police bullets on 19 July 2024 during an anti-discrimination student movement in Kanchpur, Narayanganj. He underwent surgery at Dhaka Medical College and later filed a case against Sheikh Hasina and local Awami League leaders, keeping all relevant documents and video evidence.

He added: “My gazette number is 2306, and I am a government-recognised injured person, yet the Foundation tortured me to portray me as a fraud.”

Another set of victims, Bulbul Shikdar and his wife Sabina Yasmin, alleged that on 20 March, they were summoned and tortured at the Foundation office.

Sabina said “They took my husband inside while I waited outside. After a long time, someone called to tell me, ‘Your husband is being pampered.’ When I went in, I saw he was being held in a back room where the Foundation’s verification officer, Sagar, was beating him with a pipe.”

She added: “I was also assaulted, with my hair pulled, to force a confession that my husband and son were false injured. After returning home, my husband’s mental health deteriorated, and he now requires treatment at a psychiatric hospital in Pabna.”

Sabina further claimed that another Foundation officer, Prince, warned her: “If you tell anyone about this incident, it will lead to more danger.”

Verification Officer Saidur Rahman Shahid said: “The questioning of alleged false injured people was conducted only for security purposes. Sometimes genuine injured individuals would approach aggressively. That is why they were taken to a separate room, which was CCTV monitored. If anyone was treated harshly, we express our regret.”

He also claimed: “Jahangir’s allegations are baseless.”

Lieutenant Colonel (Retd.) Kamal Akbar, CEO of the Foundation, stated: “The July movement itself was against torture cells and secret rooms. No such rooms exist here. After I assumed responsibility, I directed that any identified false injured people be handed directly to the police, not interrogated.”

He added: “We are a human rights organisation. However, if anyone has truly been subjected to torture, a specific complaint will be investigated and appropriate action will be taken.”