BSS :
Sukharanjan Bali, who was abducted from the main gate of the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) before he could appear before the tribunal and testify for the then crimes against humanity case accused Jamaat leader Delwar Hossain Sayedee, said he was pushed over the border and handed over to Indian Border Security Force (BSF) by the personnel of Bangladesh Police and Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB).
“How could they do it? How can security personnel of my own country, hand me over to a foreign force? As I saw the BSF men standing in the distance, I could sense that they (Bangladeshi security personnel) were going to hand me over to them.
I started crying my heart out. I fell on the ground and was pleading for killing me instead. But they didn’t heed, instead dragged me to BSF men, who started thrashing from the words go,” the teary-eyed Sukharanjan Bali told BSS correspondent in Pirojpur recently.
Bali, a carpenter from village Umedpur under Parerhat union in Indurkani upazila of Pirojpur, was dragged out from a vehicle of the defence counsels outside the ICT on November 5, 2012, by plainclothes security personnel and pushed into a vehicle of their own.
“They blindfolded me right after putting me into the vehicle. The vehicle started to roll and after around half an hour, it stopped. My captors brought me down from the vehicle and made me walk through a slope.
They then pushed me into a room and opened my blindfold. It was complete darkness. It was around 10-11 am, but there was no light whatsoever. Even no sound was coming from outside.
I was left there for the next two days. Sometimes my captors used to come with a little food for me, they were in some kind of blue uniforms,” Sukharanjan Bali added.
After two days, Bali was taken to a new room, where some cameras were already installed.
The captors asked him to make a statement against Sayedee on record.
Particularly, they asked him to put the blame for killing Bali’s brother in 1971 on Delwar Hossain Sayedee and said Bali would be provided with a good amount of money and other benefits if he follows their instructions.
“When I refused their proposal, they started beating me. At one point, they even started giving me electric shocks during the regular thrashing in the next couple of days.
They took me to different rooms, but the treatment I received was the same. Three to four people tortured me there in those days.
I became sick due to the brutal beatings there,” Bali further said.
After a couple of days, Bali’s captors boarded him in a vehicle again blindfolded. Bali, who was in fear for his life and thought he was being taken for execution, gathered little courage and asked where he was being taken.
“We are taking you to your home. Tell us, where should we drop you off and from where you can go to your home?’ they told me.
I told them that if they drop me off in Bagerhat, I would be able to go to my home,” Sukharanjan Bali said.
Bali said their vehicle went on for around a day with boarding a ferry on the way. At around late afternoon, the vehicle stopped for a while, when two new people boarded the vehicle.
“After around 10 to 12 minutes, the vehicle came to a stop. My captors asked me to come down after removing the blindfold.
I saw six to seven policemen in uniform with two BGB personnel. I realized the two BGB men were the ones who boarded the vehicle a little ago.
I was trying to identify the place. I saw it was a frontier area and BSF men were standing in a distance. Suddenly, I realized my captors were perhaps going to push me inside India.
I fell to the ground and broke into tears. I pleaded not to hand me over to BSF, but those policemen did not pay heed to my pleading,” Bali further said.
The policemen, led by the two BGB personnel, dragged Bali to BSF soldiers and his new captors started beating him without saying a single word.
“They tied my hands behind with a thick rope. BSF men were slapping, punching and kicking me for nothing.
I was falling on the ground by the force of their beating, they were pulling me up and the beating continued.
One BSF soldier struck me on my right elbow with a baton. I became senseless at this stage,” Bali said and busted into tears while showing the rope marks and wounds visible on his body.
Bali said he was unconscious for around three hours. After coming to his senses, the first thing that came to his mind was that his right hand might have gone forever.
“I was in so much pain. My new captors were beating me once again and telling me something.
I could not understand a single word as they were talking in Hindi. I was crying my heart out and pleading for mercy. They took me to their camp in Boikari Bazar area.
It was under the North Chabbish Pargana area in West Bengal. They later sent me to Bashirhat Jail, where I was kept for 22 days. I was shifted to Damdam Jail after that,” Sukharanjan Bali added.
Bali said during his days in Damdam Jail, he met one of his distant nephews, who was serving his sentence in that prison.
At first, the nephew could not identify him, but when Bali approached him and talked to him, he hugged him immediately.
It was this nephew, who after coming out of jail informed Bali’s family about his whereabouts.
“After that, my family members contacted officials in India and human rights groups in both countries.
I came out of jail after serving a five-year prison sentence for illegally entering India and came back home in 2018 with the help of rights activists.
But even after coming back to Bangladesh, I could not go to my ancestral home in Indurkani because of threats to my life.
I was in hiding in the homes of my relatives and known people in Bagerhat,” Bali said.
Bali said he had to endure all these sufferings for long only for willing to speak the truth.
“I saw that Delwar Hossain Sayedee was wrongly implicated in the false case. I saw who killed my brother, I know them.
But they wanted me to lie and put all the blame on Sayedee. As I refused to lie, they put me through the harrowing ordeal for six years.
I am still suffering mentally and physically from the tortures I endured. I could not go back to my profession anymore and I am passing my days through severe hardship,” he added.
Sukharanjan Bali wants justice for his sufferings and demands compensation for the anguish he had to undergo at the hands of the then-state mechanism.
