Cuffed man tortured

Mohammad Jafar, a former Jubo League leader who was tortured allegedly in police custody, in handcuffs. Photo: Collected

A video clip in which a former Jubo League leader is seen being tortured has gone viral on social media with his family members pointing the finger at police in Chittagong' Sandwip.

However, the law enforcers in question claimed they did not know anything about the incident of torture.

At the start of the 2.01-minute clip, Mohammad Jafar, 38, a former president of Sandwip Municipality Ward-5 Jubo League, is seen in handcuffs and lying on the floor of a room.

Another man is seen pressing hard a log placed just above Jafar's right ankle with his feet. Blood oozes from the victim's leg and he keeps groaning in pain.

The man then puts the log on Jafar's left leg and starts doing the same thing. At one point, he stands up on it.

Throughout the time, the man repeatedly asks Jafar about what appears to be some firearms. Jafar keeps saying that he doesn't have any arms.

Holding the man's legs with his handcuffed hands, the former Jubo League leader desperately asks for mercy. However, the man is unmoved and continues to torture him.

Another man, who was filming the incident, addresses the torturer as "sir" and asks Jafar to listen to him. He is also heard threatening the victim that he will be killed if he does not listen to the man torturing him.

Voice of another man can be heard. However, none of the faces of those three men is seen in the video.

From the clip, it is not clear where and when the incident happened but Jafar's wife Kulsum Begum alleges that her husband was tortured at Sandwip Police Station on March 23.

Talking to The Daily Star recently, Kulsum, mother of three girls, said Jafar was arrested the same day in an arms case, which was filed by "bribing police".

According to her, Jafar's political rivals who also belong to Jubo League, the youth wing of ruling Awami League, were behind all this.

"The torture on my husband seen in the video clip is just a tip of the iceberg. He was tortured even more inhumanely," Kulsum said.

She also claimed that she went to visit Jafar at the police station the next day. There, she saw her husband "who could barely walk due to the torture".

Two days later, Kulsum claimed, she again met Jafar for a brief period near a Chittagong court, where he told her about the torture "by some members of Sandwip Police Station".

Contacted, Sandwip Police Station Sub-inspector Abdur Rashid, who filed the arms case against Jafar, rejected the allegations. He claimed he was unaware of anyone being tortured in police custody.

Shamshul Islam, officer-in-charge of the police station, echoed the SI's statement and said Jafar was accused in around eight cases, including one for murder.

He said Jafar was currently in a Noakhali jail. He was taken there in connection with the murder case filed in 2015.

As per the statement of the arms case, Jafar is a listed criminal. He was arrested on March 23 after he opened fire on a police team, which was raiding a place in Sandwip to arrest some criminals.

On information gleaned from him, police later recovered four guns and two sharp weapons from another place, said the statement.

Talking to this correspondent over phone, Jafar's wife Kulsum, however, claimed that her husband was being framed. She also demanded justice for him.

Jafor Ullah Titu, youth and sports secretary of Chittagong Awami League (North), said Jafar was the president of the previous Jubo League ward committee in Sandwip municipality.

According to Torture and Custodial Death (Prevention) Act, 2013, torture in police custody is a punishable act. It says such torture means any act that inflicts physical or mental pain (of any person). The Article 15 of the law states that the punishment of torture is five years imprisonment or at least Tk 50,000 fine or both.