HRW has published a 44 page summary on the account of what happened to Tasneem Khalil in custoday.

Here is the chilling full report where there is a lot of first hand account by Tasneem.

The international media has picked up the news story widely.

Original thread from last May in UV.

Here is a reaction that we got after someone read through the piece:

My blood is boiling with rage. I have been there all along in Bangladesh but never knew a single word of it. So you see how ‘neutral’ this media has become. I was in total darkness. I read T Khalil’s blog once in a while and thought that was a smart guy. It was so appalling to see what happened to him and its even worse than Pak Army cause its our own Army. I knew DGFI is involved in some notorious activities but this is the first time I saw first hand evidence.

The report on Tasneem is outrageous, no doubt.

However, if someone reads it as a damning indictment against the whole of army in general, it will be wrong. As evident from Tasneem’s testimony, there were a number of people in army (juniors) who were sympathetic to him. But the reality is that there is unchecked and unaccoutable power to a very few. When that happens, there is bound to be misuse ot it. As a result, the image of the whole institution suffers. That is what we are seeing in Bangladesh today. That is why an institute that was not trained for law enforcements should not have taken over this job for such a prolonged period. It simply does not work. So this is damning indictment against using army for law enforcement and also an indictment against arbitrary use of power. Most importantly its a damning indictment against torture.

In the original thread posted after Tasneem got released, someone from the inside named “ABC” joined in the blog. It was a very encouraging start to a meaningful civil-military dialogue. Unfortunately, it stopped as ABC decided to give veiled threats to bloggers. Although he said there were a lot more information about Tasneem was forthcoming, but other than a tabloid article from leaked emails, nothing surfaced since then.

There can be a lot of opinion about Tasneem and his reporting. But everyone must come in unison to say that what was done to him was wrong. Our sympathies to him and his family who is having to endure so much. No reform, no election is meaningful in the absence of rule of law and accountability.

Lastly, an excerpt from a comment made by Mridul on that thread addressed to ABC.

We all make mistakes and so does the military - we just have to learn from our mistakes and move on, and not try to justify them with made-up stories. We are all in the process of trying to re-build our country after many years of injustice and corruption - you, your colleagues in the military, I, Tasneem and everyone else are all really on the same boat. What’s the point in fighting with each other?

I sincerely hope that you will be able to convince your colleagues in upholding the task of an institution that is supposed to make us feel safe, not scared.

We couldn’t agree more and at the same time we want accountibilty for these actions and a safe passage for Tasneem and his family back home so that his child can grow up in a free country without the fear of losing his father in a ‘crossfire’.