What is Aynaghar, Sheikh Hasina’s house of horrors for political prisoners

On August 21, 2016, Barrister Ahmad Bin Quasem Arman, was going about his day when he was arrested from his home in Mirpur, Dhaka. Two days later, former Brigadier General Abdullahil Aman Azmi was taken away by law enforcement officials for crimes against humanity in the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War. Both these men ended up in Aynaghar, the House of Mirrors, a secret prison in Bangladesh under the Sheikh Hasina government.

Aynaghar is a house of horrors. Those detained there and released hardly talk about what they underwent.

Both Arman and Azmi were released on August 6, reported the Daily Observer, Bangladesh. For 8 long years, they were held as prisoners in the worst conditions without any trial.

Hasina’s regime fell as she escaped from the country on August 5, and now the focus is on a mysterious prison centre in Bangladesh — Aynaghar or Aynaghor.

WHAT IS AYNAGHAR, THE HOUSE OF MIRRORS IN DHAKA?

The Hasina regime was known for sudden disappearances and harsh treatment of political opponents.

There are 23 other secret detention centres, with some of them in Dhaka itself, according to reports. One of the mysterious places where prisoners end up is Aynaghar or House of Mirrors in Dhaka Cantonment.

Aynaghar is reportedly run by the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI), Bangladesh’s military intelligence agency.

It is believed that not just political prisoners, the Aynaghar facility was used to detain extremists too.

According to a Human Rights Watch report in 2024, Bangladeshi forces have carried out over 600 enforced disappearances since 2009, the year Sheikh Hasina came to power.

Some prisoners were released, others produced in court. Many even died during an armed exchange with security forces. The Hasina government had refused to take the United Nations’ help to investigate enforced disappearances.

Allegations of torture are seldom investigated in Bangladesh.

Over 100 people still remain missing.

In 2022, Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said that the party’s acting chairman and ex-PM Khaleda Zia’s son, Tarique Rahman, was also a victim of Aynaghar. Rahman, who later shifted to London, is planning to return to Bangladesh.

“Those who will be murdered are taken to the torture cell of this Aynaghar, and those who will be kept alive are tortured and confined here for years,” Bangladesh newspaper Prothom Alo quoted him as saying.

UN Resident Coordinator in Bangladesh, Gwyn Lewis, visited DGFI headquarters and asked about Aynaghar. Lewis was told that Aynaghar did not exist, reported The Business Standard of Bangladesh.

HOW PRISONERS ARE TREATED IN AYNAGHAR?

Sheikh Mohammad Salim was at an auto repair shop when he was abducted after a phone call. He also landed in Aynaghar. Hasinur Rahman was a decorated military officer, who was detained here after serving for many years.

Both Sheikh Mohammad Salim and Hasinur Rahman have been interviewed by Netra News.

Salim said his cells had no windows, a high ceiling with just one light, loud and huge exhaust fans. The sounds of these fans drowned every other sound in the room. He could feel vibrations within the building. This meant a nearby airport or an airfield.

Previous prisoners had written DGFI on the walls of the cells, according to his account.

“I could not even imagine how many people had been locked in this prison before me,” Salim told Netra News.

People wrote “DGFI brought me here” or that “DGFI had picked them from their home”.

Some carvings were more touching than the others.

One read, “Please ask my family to not stop searching for me and tell them that the government brought me here.”

Salim was not given the respect other more distinguished prisoners would receive. He was tortured and beaten.

“One day, they beat me up severely and then took me to a different cell,” he told Netra News.

Salim was not the man they wanted to arrest. A victim of mistaken identity, he was soon released. He soon went to Malaysia.

WHERE IS THE MYSTERIOUS AYNAGHAR LOCATED?

Hasinur Rahman was a former lieutenant colonel with the Bangladesh army. He was a recipient of a major military gallantry award called ‘Bir Pratik.’ He was the commander of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) — a notorious paramilitary group on which the US had imposed a human rights sanction. He had been part of anti-militancy operations. In 2012, he was sacked on charges of involvement with militants. He denied the charges to Netra News.

He was first abducted in 2011. Then, in 2018, he was in Aynaghar. He was able to spot Aynaghar as he peeked through the exhaust fans of the toilet. As a former army officer, he knew the Dhaka cantonment area in detail.

In 2018, he was captured from his house at Mirpur Defence Officers’ Housing Society. Finally, he was released in February 2020. Initially, he was not willing to speak to anyone.

“This house of disappearance is called Aynaghar,” Rahman told Netra News.

An officer also told Netra News that Aynaghar had 30 cells. Soundproof investigation cells, where prisoners were tortured.

Ayanaghar is guarded by both civilians and the military.

“While I was there in that prison, I heard a lot of people crying in different cells. I am lucky that I got released, but many unfortunate people are still there,” Salim told Voice of America. “I am taking this great risk just for the sake of them. I am urging [the government] to stop this heinous crime of enforced disappearances.”

When the victims are released, they choose silence to save their lives and that of their family, Zulkarnain Saer from Netra News told VOA.

“One misstep and they could be abducted and disappear again, so it is hugely significant that these voices are heard and reported,” said Saer who was an undercover reporter on Al Jazeera’s award-winning investigative film ‘All the Prime Minister’s Men’.

On Wednesday (August 7), the DGFI said that there were no detainees in Aynaghar, according to a Daily Star report.

HOPING TO TAKE BACK LOVED ONES FROM AYNAGHAR

The DGFI said this to a group of activists and asked its members to inspect the facility. The DGFI told the group that it would form a joint commission to inspect 23 other detention centres across Bangladesh.

Families of the missing were not convinced by the DGFI statement and were protesting outside its headquarters.

Family members of missing people came there with hope of taking back their loved ones now that the Sheikh Hasina regime had crumbled.

One of them was Nadira Sultana, who came looking for her husband, Ataur Rahman. He has been missing since December 2011.

“I told everyone I am going to Dhaka to bring back by daughter’s father. I started at 3.00 am for Dhaka,” Daily Star quoted the woman from Madaripur district as saying. Madaripur is around three hours by road from Dhaka.

There are dozens like Nadira Sultana who are waiting to take back their missing husbands, sons or fathers home after years of detention and torture at the infamous Aynaghar.