Months after a student-led protest in Bangladesh snowballed into a full-blown anti-government movement and led to Sheikh Hasina’s ouster, horrifying details have emerged about the secret prisons where the former Prime Minister’s dissidents were held. The victims of forced disappearances have since come forward and spoken about what went on inside these jails, called ‘Aynaghor’, literally translated as the “House of Mirrors.”

As Bangladesh and its 170-million-strong population prepare for a new future under an interim government, among them are also those who once thought they would never be a part of the free world again.

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During Hasina’s regime, which began in 2009, hundreds of people were allegedly picked up by the security forces, sometimes for even the smallest of demonstrations against the state. While many were reportedly killed and their bodies discarded, some were put in secret military detention centre — code-named the ‘House of Mirrors’, The New York Times reported.

What was ‘Aynaghor’?

Ms Hasina is believed to have marshalled the state machinery to take on anyone challenging her hold on power. A part of this effort’s “deepest recesses” was the enforced disappearances programme, the NYT reported.

Human rights organisations estimate over 700 people have been victims of forced disappearances since 2009. They say the actual figure is expected to be much higher.

In some cases, dissidents were even targeted for organising an rally or blocking roads to mark a protest, or even posting a message to express dissent on social media.

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Under the House of Mirrors, there were several secret long-term detentions entrusted to the Bangladesh military’s intelligence wing. Many of these detainees, who were taken to an underground prison, have claimed hearing morning military parades above them.

Maroof Zaman, a former Bangladesh ambassador to Qatar and Vietnam, spent a total of 467 days in prison before re-emerging in 2019. Zaman was able to pinpoint the military garrison in Dhaka on Google Maps, which has now been marked as Aynaghor – Bengali for House of Mirrors.

What happened Inside

Run by army intelligence, the ‘House of Mirrors’ was given this name because the detainees were never supposed to see any other person apart from themselves.

This tightly run centre offered a life barely worth living. Here, people faced direct physical torture during interrogations. Health checkups were regular and thorough. Every four to six months, inmates were given haircuts.

The goal behind this was to torture the mind, The New York Times stated.

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Bangladeshi barrister Ahmad Bin Quasem, who was detained in 2016, was blindfolded, handcuffed, and bundled out of the secret prison after eight years. “That’s the first time I got fresh air in eight years. I thought they were going to kill me,” he told AFP earlier this year.

Inside the prison, Quasem was shackled around the clock in a windowless solitary confinement. Further, the jailers were strictly instructed not to relay news from the outside world. Also, he was made to wear metal handcuffs nearly all the time.

When asked to sketch the facility, some of the former detainees stated that it had long corridors with half a dozen rooms that were facing away from each other. The detention centre had toilets at each end, both standing and a squatting one. Each of the cells here had large exhaust fans meant to drown out the guards’ chatter as well as send the prisoners into madness.