Press Release
Torture of Hizb ut Tahrir Members by Bangladeshi Government

A delegation from Hizb ut-Tahrir Australia this morning visited the Bangladesh High Commission in Canberra to meet with the High Commissioner in relation to continuing imprisonment and torture of Hizb ut-Tahrir members and activists in Bangladesh. Given the absence of the High Commissioner and his deputy, the delegation was received by an embassy officer, Musharraf Hussain, who listened to the delegation and said that he would bring the matter up with the High Commissioner.

A letter was delivered detailing the unacceptable situation prevailing in relation to this matter, with the following background and facts:

1. The current Bangladeshi Government resorted to a policy of brutal repression against Hizb ut-Tahrir since February 2009 when the party exposed Sheikh Hasina and her government's collaboration in the massacre of officers of the Bangladesh Army. Party members and activists are regularly harassed and arrested. Up till now hundreds of party members and activists, along with the party's official spokesman, Mohiuddin Ahmed, have been imprisoned under false cases. They are denied bail despite plain and unambiguous grounds for granting them bail.

2. Being true to their reputation, the Bangladesh police, RAB and the Task Force for Interrogation (TFI) subject the members and activists of Hizb ut-Tahrir to inhumane torture using brutal means which include applying electric shock to their genitals, squashing them between slabs of ice for lengthy periods, blindfolding, stripping them naked, hanging them upside down, sleep deprivation and beating them severely.

3. In continuing with the repressive policies against Hizb ut-Tahrir, the Government of Bangladesh instructed the police to launch a brutal attack on the party's programme on 13 August 2011, at Muktangon, Dhaka. The police severely beat and injured many members and activists who had to be admitted to hospital for treatment. The police also arrested 16 members and activists of the party from the programme. They were subsequently remanded for various durations and ruthlessly tortured in the same brutal methods mentioned above. These sixteen were the following:

1. Shafayet Ullah, age 17
2. Asif Rahman, age 18
3. Syed Abdullah, age 19
4. Monirul Islam Piyas, age 20
5. Jamilur Rahman, age 20
6. Sabbir Ahmed, age 21
7. Radi Shafiq, age 22
8. Mohammad Faisal, age 22
9. Ashiqur Rahman, age 22
10. Syyedul Islam, age 22
11. Ahmed Nizam, age 23
12. Shahab Uddin, age 27
13. Sharif Shah Miraj, age 27
14. Jahidul Islam, age 29
15. Habibur Rahman, age 35 and
16. Jahid Uddin, age 42.

Hizb ut Tahrir condemns these barbaric tactics and demands that the Government of Bangladesh cease its practice of taking prisoners of conscience and of torturing them. They should also take heed from the uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa, the lessons of which, for repressive regimes, are clear and ominous. We also note the hypocrisy of Western Government who incessantly speak of ‘human rights' whilst continuing to have diplomatic, financial, and military ties with regimes in the Muslim world who repress any political opposition through imprisonment and torture.

 Contact: Uthman Badar, Media Representative, on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 0438 000 465.

Photos of delegation outside the Bangladeshi High Commission: