Jalil alleges DGFI torture, demands probe.............

Awami League general secretary Abdul Jalil MP on Thursday came down hard on the military spy agency DGFI, alleging torture and demanding that its activities be restricted only to defence forces.

"We have fought for human rights. But we have an agency which fails to treat human beings with dignity. The name of this agency is DGFI," Jalil said, speaking in parliament.

"It makes fun out of politicians and undermines them. They do not care about anyone," said Jalil, who alleged officers of the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence arrested him blindfolded and detained him for five days.

"I do not want to talk about the kind of torture that I went through during my interrogation," Jalil said.

"I demand punishment to those who interrogated me unlawfully—so that such incidents do not happen in future," he said, demanding a parliamentary probe to investigate the torture done to him by the DGFI members during the state of emergency.

"I propose formation of a parliamentary probe body headed by the speaker to find out those responsible," Jalil said.

"They did not give me the respect I deserve as a politician, a former minister and freedom fighter," he said.

"I was humiliated by the release of a CD (containing the audio record) of my interrogation."

"The CD was released to create misunderstanding between me and the (now) prime minister. It was claimed that I spoke against her."

In a voice choked with emotion, the former cabinet minister said: "At the age of 70, I have been dragged far off my normal track of life. I want justice."

He said he was detained on May 28, 2007 and taken away blindfolded from his Mercantile Bank office. He said he spent five days on remand.

"While in jail, I was made to pay for my medicines. I had to pay LabAid (Hospital) Tk 19 lakh as charges and Tk 5 lakh as medicine expenses.

"They made me fall sick through the interrogation. Again, they forced me to pay for the medical expenses," said Jalil.

The Awami League general-secretary also demanded removal of chairman of the Anticorruption Commission Hasan Mashhud Chowdhury for his alleged partiality in investigating corruption charges.

"He is partial. He asked for my wealth statement, but did not ask Syed Iskander (brother of BNP chief Khaleda Zia) who plundered people's money."

The Awami League frontbench MP, who was given floor to speak on the thank-you motion for President Iajuddin Ahmed's speech, said "I cannot thank the President. Rather I am in favour of his impeachment."
He burst into tears as he finished his speech. Rashed Khan Menon MP of the Workers Party went over to the AL leader and consoled him.

The leader of the House, prime minister Sheikh Hasina, was not present when Jalil spoke.