On August 21, 2016, Barrister Ahmed Bin Qasim Arman was busy with his work when he was arrested from his house in Mirpur, Dhaka. Two days later, former Brigadier General Abdullahil Aman Azmi was taken into custody by law enforcement officials for crimes against humanity in the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971. Both of them were kept in Ainaghar, The House of Mirrors, a secret prison in Bangladesh under the Sheikh Hasina government.
Aynagarh is a terrifying place. Those detained here and those released rarely tell us what they went through.
Both Arman and Azmi were released on August 6, after being held prisoner for eight years in the worst conditions without a trial, reports Bangladesh’s Daily Observer.
His regime collapsed as Hasina fled From Country on August 5, and the focus is now on a mysterious prison centre in Bangladesh – Ayanaghar or Ayanagor.
What is the House of Mirrors, Ainaghar in Dhaka?
The Hasina regime was known for sudden disappearances and harsh treatment of political opponents.
According to the report, there are 23 other secret detention centres, some of which are in Dhaka itself. Ayna Ghar or Mirror House in Dhaka Cantonment is a mysterious place where prisoners are kept.
AynaGhar is reportedly operated by Bangladesh’s military intelligence agency, the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI).
The Aynagarh facility is believed to have been used to detain not just political prisoners, but extremists as well.
According to a 2024 report by Human Rights Watch, since 2009, the year Sheikh Hasina came to power, Bangladeshi forces have forcibly disappeared more than 600 people.
Some prisoners were released, while others were produced in court. Several people also died in armed encounters with security forces. The Hasina government refused to seek UN help to investigate enforced disappearances.
Allegations of torture are rarely investigated in Bangladesh.
More than 100 people are still missing.
In 2022, Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said that Tarique Rahman, the party’s acting president and son of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, was also a victim of Iyengar. Rahman, who later moved to London, plans to return to Bangladesh.
“Those who are killed are taken to the torture cell of this Ayna Ghar and those who are kept alive are imprisoned here for years and tortured,” he was quoted as saying by Bangladesh newspaper Prothom Alo.
Gwyn Lewis, the UN resident coordinator in Bangladesh, visited the DGFI headquarters and asked about Aynagar. Lewis was told that Aynagar did not exist, Bangladesh’s Business Standard reported.
How are the inmates treated at Ainaghar?
Sheikh Mohammed Salim was at an auto repair shop when he was abducted after a phone call. He too landed in Aynagar. Hasinur Rahman was a decorated army officer who was detained here after serving for many years.
Both Sheikh Mohammed Salim and Hasinur Rahman have been interviewed by Netra News.
Salim said that his cells had no windows, high ceilings with only one light, and loud, large exhaust fans. The sound of these fans drowned out every other sound in the room. He could feel vibrations inside the building. This meant that there was an airport or airfield nearby.
According to him, previous inmates had written DGFI on the walls of the cells.
“I couldn’t even imagine how many people were imprisoned in this jail before me,” Salim told Netra News.
People wrote that “DGFI brought me here” or “DGFI picked them up from their home”.
Some of the carvings were more poignant than others.
One of these read, “Please tell my family not to stop searching for me and tell them that it was the government that brought me here.”
Salim was not given the respect that other distinguished prisoners received. He was tortured and beaten.
“One day, they beat me badly and then took me to a separate cell,” he told Netra News.
Salim was not the person they wanted to arrest. He was soon released due to mistaken identity. He soon fled to Malaysia.
Where is the mysterious mirror located?
Hasinur Rahman was a former lieutenant colonel in the Bangladesh Army. He was awarded a major military gallantry award called ‘Bir Pratik’. He was the commander of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) – a notorious paramilitary group that has been put under human rights sanctions by the US. He was part of anti-terrorism operations. In 2012, he was dismissed for being involved with terrorists. He denied the allegations to Netra News.
He was first kidnapped in 2011. Then, in 2018, he was at Aynagar. He recognised Aynagar by looking through the toilet’s exhaust fan. As a former army officer, he knew the Dhaka cantonment area in detail.
He was arrested from his house in Mirpur Defence Officers Housing Society in 2018. He was finally released in February 2020. Initially, he was not ready to talk to anyone.
“The name of this disappeared house is Ayanaghar,” Rehman told Netra News.
An official also told Netra News that Ayanaghar had 30 cells. Soundproof investigation cells, where prisoners were tortured.
The Ayanghar is guarded by both civilian and military forces.
“When I was in that prison, I heard a lot of people crying in different cells. I am lucky that I was released, but there are many unlucky people who are still there,” Salim told Voice of America. “I am taking this big risk just for them. I am urging [the government] to stop this heinous crime of enforced disappearance.”
Zulqarnain Sayer of Netra News told VOA that when victims are released, they maintain silence to save their lives and those of their families.
“One wrong move and they could be abducted again and disappear, so it’s very important that these voices are heard and reported,” said Sawyer, who was an undercover reporter in Al Jazeera’s award-winning investigative film “All the Prime Minister’s Men.”
On Wednesday (August 7), the DGFI said there were no detainees at Aynaaghar, the Daily Star reported.
Hope to bring back loved ones from orphanage
The DGFI told 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 centers in Bangladesh.
The families of the missing persons did not agree with the DGFI statement and were protesting outside the headquarters.
Family members of the missing persons had come there with the hope that now the Sheikh Hasina regime is over and they will be able to get back their loved ones.
One of them was Nadira Sultana, who had come looking for her husband, Ataur Rahman, who has been missing since December 2011.
“I told everyone I was going to Dhaka to bring back my daughter’s father. I left for Dhaka at 3 a.m.,” the woman from Madaripur district, about three hours by road, was quoted as saying by the Daily Star.
There are dozens of women like Nadira Sultana who are waiting to take their missing husbands, sons or fathers back home after years of detention and torture in the infamous Ayyanagar.