Joint Interrogation Cell is a secret interrogation cell in Bangladesh. It is located inside Kochukhet of

Dhaka Cantonment Dhaka Cantonment () is a cantonment located in the northern part of Dhaka, Bangladesh. The headquarters of the Bangladesh Army and Air Force are situated within the cantonment. The cantonment is located on the north-east end of Dhaka. History ...

. Joint Interrogation Cell and Taskforce for Interrogation Cell are two main cells that torture detainees in Bangladesh. There is another Joint Interrogation Cell at the headquarters of the

Criminal Investigation Department The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) is the branch of a police force to which most plainclothes criminal investigation, detectives belong in the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth nations. A force's CID is disti ...

where

Lutfozzaman Babar Lutfozzaman Babar (Bengali language, Bengali: লুৎফুজ্জামান বাবর, born 10 October 1958) is a Bangladeshi politician, who served as the Ministry of Home Affairs (Bangladesh), Minister of Home Affairs in the Second ...

was interrogated.

History

The facilities for the Joint Interrogation Cell used during the

Bangladesh Liberation War The Bangladesh Liberation War (, ), also known as the Bangladesh War of Independence, was an War, armed conflict sparked by the rise of the Bengali nationalism, Bengali nationalist and self-determination movement in East Pakistan, which res ...

Pakistan Army The Pakistan Army (, ), commonly known as the Pak Army (), is the Land warfare, land service branch and the largest component of the Pakistan Armed Forces. The president of Pakistan is the Commander-in-chief, supreme commander of the army. The ...

to torture suspects and closed after the Independence of Bangladesh. Joint Interrogation Cell located inside Kochukhet of Dhaka Cantonment were first used in Independent Bangladesh by the Carataker Government led by

Fakhruddin Ahmed Fakhruddin Ahmed (; born 1 May 1940) is a Bangladeshi economist, civil servant, and a former governor of the Bangladesh Bank, the country's central bank. He also served as the 4th Chief Adviser of Caretaker government of Bangladesh. On 12 Janu ...

and Chief of Amr Staff

Moeen U Ahmed Moeen Uddin Ahmed (born 21 January 1953) is a former Bangladeshi four star general and the 12th Chief of Army Staff of the Bangladesh Army, Chief of Army Staff of the Bangladesh Army from 15 June 2005 to 15 June 2009. He has worked in High Commi ...

in 2007 and was continued by the

Awami League The Awami League, officially known as Bangladesh Awami League, is a major List of political parties in Bangladesh, political party in Bangladesh. The oldest existing political party in the country, the party played the leading role in achievin ...

government led by Prime Minister

Sheikh Hasina Sheikh Hasina (''née'' Wazed; born 28 September 1947) is a Bangladeshi politician who served as the tenth prime minister of Bangladesh from June 1996 to July 2001 and again from January 2009 to August 2024. Premiership of Sheikh Hasina, Her ...

since 2009. Another secret detention and interrogation facility, the Taskforce for Interrogation Cell, is located inside the headquarters of

Rapid Action Battalion Rapid Action Battalion (; abbreviated as RAB) is an anti-crime and anti-terrorism unit of the Bangladesh Police. This elite force consists of members of the Bangladesh Army, Bangladesh Navy, Bangladesh Air Force, Bangladesh Police, Border Guard ...

. Beside the Joint Interrogation Cell is the secret prison

Aynaghor Aynaghar () is a colloquial term referring to a network of Black site, clandestine detention centers which were operated by the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI), the intelligence branch of Bangladesh's defence forces and Rapid Acti ...

. Several British citizens have been detained at the cells. In 2007, Tasneem Khalil was interrogated and tortured at the Joint Interrogation Cell after writing about extrajudicial killings in Bangladesh. The Ministry of Home Affairs, under the Fakhruddin Ahmed led caretaker government, issued a statement on 8 August 2008 to the

Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Headquartered in New York City, the group investigates and reports on issues including War crime, war crimes, crim ...

regarding their 2007 country report on Bangladesh. The statement denied allegations that the

Directorate General of Forces Intelligence The Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (), commonly known by its acronym DGFI, is the defense intelligence agency of the Bangladesh Armed Forces, tasked with collection, collation and evaluation of strategic and topographic informatio ...

tortured Professor M. Anwar Hossain and journalist Tasneem Khalil said since it does not have its own interrogation facilities it used the Joint Interrogation Cell in cooperation with other security forces. Brigadier General Abdur Rahim and Brigadier General

Rezzakul Haider Chowdhury Rezzakul Haider Chowdhury is a retired Bangladesh Army officer who is the former director of the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence and National Security Intelligence. Career Chowdhury maintained regular contact with Tarique Rahman wh ...

, former director generals of

National Security Intelligence The National Security Intelligence, commonly known as the NSI, is the principal civilian intelligence agency of Bangladesh. The NSI is the leading body of the Government of Bangladesh in the fields of internal security, counter terrorism, coun ...

, were interrogated at the Joint Interrogation Cell about the

2004 arms and ammunition haul in Chittagong The incident of the 10-Truck Arms and Ammunition Haul took place in Chattogram, Bangladesh, on the night of 1 April 2004, when police and Coast Guard interrupted the loading of ten trucks and seized extensive illegal arms and ammunition at a jett ...

. They were later shifted to the Taskforce for Interrogation Cell. In 2012, a parliamentary committee led by

Rashed Khan Menon Rashed Khan Menon (born 18 May 1943) is a Bangladeshi politician. He is the president of Workers Party of Bangladesh and a former Jatiya Sangsad member representing the Barisal-2, Dhaka-8 and Bakerganj-9 constituencies. He was the chairman of ...

recommended to end Directorate General of Forces Intelligence in domestic politics and closing the interrogation cells of the unit. It blamed top security officials from the Army and Police for torture of academics from the University of Dhaka by the caretaker government. In 2024, after the fall of the Sheikh Hasina led Awami League government, security forces destroyed this along with other secret detention centers.

Past detainees

Tarique Rahman Tarique Rahman (born 20 November 1965), better known natively as Tarique Zia, is a Bangladeshi politician and businessman who has been the acting chairman of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) since February 2018. He is the eldest son of fo ...

Obaidul Quader Obaidul Quader (born 1 February 1952) is a Bangladeshi politician. He has served as the General Secretary of the Bangladesh Awami League since October 2016. Quader was previously the Minister of Road Transport and Bridges from 2011–2024 and ...

Sheikh Selim Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim (born 2 February 1949; known as Sheikh Selim) is a Bangladeshi politician who was a 9-term Member of Parliament representing the Gopalganj-2 constituency during 1980–2024. He is a presidium member of the Bangladesh ...

* Hasinur Rahman * Mufti Hannan *

* Abdur Rahim *

Muhammad Jasimuddin Rahmani Muhammad Jasimuddin Rahmani () is a Deobandi jihadist islamic scholar and Mufti from Bangladesh. He was the imam of Hatembagh Jame Masjid in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Jasimusdun Rahmani, a Jihadist, is the chief of an Al-Qaeda affiliated militant organis ...

References

{{reflist Organisations based in Dhaka Government agencies of Bangladesh Bangladeshi intelligence agencies Bangladesh Police

History

See also

Past detainees

References