97 days of enforced disappearance, 11 months in jail on false charges: Student recounts harrowing tale
In early April of 2022, BUBT student Rifat Ahmed Chowdhury was picked up from Mirpur. For over the next three months, he was allegedly held captive at the Detective Branch office in the capital. Later, he was accused in a false case and sentenced to jail.
The Bangladesh University of Business and Technology (BUBT) student made the claims while speaking about his enforced disappearance to the media at the National Press Club today (30 August), on the occasion of the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances.
“I was forcibly abducted from in front of Sony Cinema Hall in Mirpur on 11 April 2022. They [unidentified people] put me in a black microbus and later held me captive in a room at the Detective Branch office for 97 days,” he recounted at the event organised by the Council Against Injustice (CAI).
At that time, he was a second-year student at BUBT.
Rifat continued, “During this time, I was given extremely unhygienic food and tortured mentally.
“After being held for 97 days, I was shown arrested under the Anti-Terrorism Act by the Jatrabari police on 16 July. The next day, I was produced in court. I was sentenced to jail. Initially, I was kept at Keraniganj Jail, and later transferred to Kashimpur Jail.
“I was eventually released on bail after 11 months,” he added.
During the event, 10 students and professionals, including Sakib Bin Kamal, shared similar stories of enforced disappearance.
Barrister Sarwar Hossain, poet Muhib Khan, and CAI Convener Sher Muhammad Saeed, among others, also spoke at the event.
