In a shocking account of abuse and injustice, a woman, Sadiqah Shahnaz, has come forward to share her traumatic experience at the hands of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) officer Alep Uddin.
Her story, which dates back to 2018, reveals a dark chapter of unlawful detention, physical and mental torture, and systemic oppression.
On September 18, 2018, the victim received a distressing call from her friend, who tearfully informed her that her husband had been taken away by men in plain clothes.
At the time, enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings were rampant in the country. Being a practicing Muslim with a beard and regular prayers was enough to label someone a “militant” and make them vanish. The victim’s friend’s husband, a devout Muslim, was one such target.
Feeling a sense of duty to stand by her friend, the victim had no idea what awaited her. Within days, she realized that her every move, call, and message was being monitored.
On October 28, RAB officers arrived at her home, surrounded the area with vehicles, and took her away in front of her family. Her 1.5-year-old daughter, who depended entirely on her, was left behind in the care of a maid.
Blindfolded and handcuffed, the victim was taken to RAB’s notorious “Aynaghar” (mirror room), a dark, suffocating cell where she was subjected to brutal interrogation.
Alep Uddin, the officer in charge, led the torture sessions, disregarding all rules and protocols.
Despite being a woman, the victim was stripped of her hijab, handcuffed, and subjected to physical and psychological abuse.
For 48 hours, she endured unimaginable horrors. The interrogation room was designed to disorient and break her mentally.
Alep Uddin, known for his cruelty, often removed female officers from the room to avoid witnesses while he carried out his atrocities. He threatened to harm her child and husband, forcing her to confess to false charges.
After days of torture, the victim was paraded before the media as part of a staged “militant arrest.” False evidence was planted, and she was accused of being involved in a major sabotage plot.
She was then sent to jail, where she spent seven months in deplorable conditions, denied basic rights, including seeing her daughter.
Even after her release on bail, the harassment continued. Alep Uddin and his team repeatedly summoned her, ensuring her life remained a living nightmare. The victim’s story is not isolated.
Many others, including a 15-year-old girl, suffered similar fates under Alep Uddin’s reign of terror. He boasted about his brutality, calling himself “The Butcher,” and proudly claimed to have completed a “century” of cases, earning accolades from higher authorities.
The victim’s plea is a cry for justice. She prays that no one else endures such inhuman treatment and that those responsible, like Alep Uddin, face divine retribution.
Her story is a stark reminder of the systemic abuse of power and the urgent need for accountability in Bangladesh.
Listen the story on his own voice –
September 18, 2018. In the afternoon, my friend called me. Crying, she told me that some people in plain clothes had taken her husband away. She was completely devastated. Extrajudicial disappearances, murders, and torture were common occurrences in the country at that time.
Having a beard, wearing a cap, praying five times a day in congregation, preaching about religion – any one of these was enough to label someone a “terrorist” and make them disappear. My friend’s husband was a practicing Muslim, so they didn’t need any other reason to abduct him.
I felt it was my duty to stand by my friend in this crisis. But I had no idea what was waiting for me.
Three to four days after talking to my friend, I realized that our every word, every message, every step was being monitored.
Someone was watching everything – phone calls, messages. The day I went to her house, three members of RAB (Rapid Action Battalion) came to their house and took my personal information, home address, and phone number.
On the morning of October 28, I received a call from an unknown number. The person on the other end said that three RAB members were in front of my house to ask questions about my friend and her husband.
Looking through the window, I saw two Land Cruisers and about 10-15 motorcycles surrounding our entire house.
Panicked, I called my husband. He spoke to RAB on the phone. They told us to come downstairs. My husband said, “If we bring them upstairs, the situation might become more complicated. Let’s go downstairs.”
I was feeding my one-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Sidratul Muntaha, at the time. She was born after my first child died. She couldn’t understand anything without me. I forcibly handed her over to the house help and left the house.
As soon as we went downstairs, they first snatched our phones. Then, blindfolding us, they put us in a car in front of the local people. I kept saying, “My baby is crying, she can’t stay without me!”
The reply came, “Should we take the baby too?”
My father was following the car, and they behaved very badly with him.
Then we were taken to their “Aynaghar” (torture cell). When they removed my blindfold, I saw that I had been placed in a small, dark cell. They handcuffed me and tied me to an iron bar. They made me stand up after removing my hijab. When I became physically ill, they took me to another cell.
Inside that narrow 3×5 feet cell, there was a small toilet, and a CCTV camera was placed right in front.
I didn’t know where my husband was, or what condition he was in. I didn’t know what charges had been brought against us.
I spent 48 hours in that closed cell like a horrific nightmare. During these 48 hours, I was subjected to severe physical and mental torture in the name of interrogation.
SP (Superintendent of Police) Alep Uddin of RAB-11 and another officer, Moshiur Rahman, were in charge of the interrogation.
According to the rules, a female representative must be present during the interrogation of women, but Alep Uddin did not care about that rule.
He was always very eager to lay hands on women. Under the pretext of conducting “private talks,” he would send the female RAB members out of the room so that there would be no witnesses to his torture.
The interrogation room was very stuffy and soundproof. The light, the color of the walls, and the environment of this room were arranged in such a way that after a while, one would start feeling dizzy and the eyes would become blurry.
After looking around for a while, the head would feel heavy, and the eyes would become blurry. It felt like I was slowly being hypnotized.
To avoid this abnormal feeling, I kept my head down all the time, looking at the ground. I knew that if I got lost in the surrounding environment, my mental strength would also break down.
They didn’t stop at just mental pressure. They repeatedly physically tortured me. Despite being a female prisoner, SP Alep himself led the torture. There were no rules for him – he used the law according to his own will.
Those 48 hours were a horrific chapter of my life. Every moment was full of fear and pain, like a nightmare.
Then they came and blindfolded me again. After keeping me in the dark for a long time, suddenly, around noon, my eyes were uncovered.
When I opened my eyes, I saw two strange men standing on either side of me, and reporters from various TV channels were sitting in front of me.
In front of me on the table were weapons, some books – everything was like a staged drama. Their “terrorist drama” began. According to their script, I was involved in a major act of sabotage. Then they handcuffed me and took me to Siddhirganj Police Station in a police van.
A false case was filed against me – that I was arrested red-handed from inside a mosque while planning sabotage! There were two other “main coordinators” with me, and I was their “female representative”!
But I had never seen these two men before, and I didn’t even know their names. Then began the game of remand (police custody).
In front of countless policemen at the police station, I was handcuffed and made to stand with thieves, snatchers, and drug dealers. My accommodation was arranged in a place where it was impossible to sleep. For more than 72 hours, I was either standing or somehow sitting with my back against something.
After the police remand ended, Alep Uddin again applied for a 5-day remand. This remand was even more horrific.
During the remand, Alep Uddin threatened to kill my one-and-a-half-year-old child. He said that I would never get my husband back. He threatened to rape me and said that if I didn’t confess everything, my fate would be terrible.
He pressured me to admit to false accusations. He asked me to be a false witness. The physical and mental torture was so severe that it is impossible to express in words.
Alep Uddin (SP RAB 11) showed me pictures of several dismembered bodies and said that they were of my friend, her husband, and their associates.
“Do you want your child and husband to end up like this? If not, tell me what I want to know!”
I said I didn’t know anything, so how could I say it.
A false testimony was taken from me, under the threat of rape.
I don’t know the person about whom I gave the testimony.
I don’t know what happened to that brother later, how he is. I have forgotten his name. I only remember that I was told he was a former military officer of Pakistani descent.
It causes me great mental pain to remember this; I will have to bear the responsibility of a false testimony for the rest of my life.
Alep Uddin is a devil hidden inside a human body. After 5 days of his torture, I was sent to Narayanganj jail.
Oppression continued in jail as well. I was told that I could only meet my family once a month for only 15 minutes – that too from 5 meters away, with a thick iron bar wall between us.
This is how my imprisonment was going on. But within 15 days, Alep Uddin called me back on remand. He took sadistic pleasure in speaking indecently to girls from respectable families and disrespecting them.
Once, I told him in a firm voice, “You cannot talk to a female prisoner like this.”
He said very proudly, “My name is Butcher! You can’t even imagine what I can do. With just a snap of my fingers, I can make you disappear from this world!”
After 5 days of mental anguish, fear, and physical torture during the remand, I was sent back to jail. Alep Uddin ensured that there was no possibility of me getting bail. It wasn’t just me – this devil had kept many girls imprisoned for days.
He himself framed a girl who was only 15 years old and kept her imprisoned in “Aynaghar” for four months. He had completed his “century” with more than a hundred cases filed under the terrorism act. And for all these dramas, he had collected big awards from Hasina.
Finally, after a long and difficult 7 months, I got bail. In these 7 months, I was not allowed to see my one-and-a-half-year-old child even once. They did not allow my necessary medicine to be supplied from outside. His only goal was to create trouble for us even inside the jail.
Even after granting bail, I was not given peace. He would call me in every now and then. Not only RAB, but also DB (Detective Branch) officers would call me to their office and harass me. The worries of appearing in court every month and the harassing activities like not extending bail when the time came were ongoing until August 5.
I will never forget the injustice that was done to me and the injustice that was done to my child. This dark chapter of my life will traumatize me forever. It is unbelievable that in a Muslim-majority country like Bangladesh, hundreds of Muslim men, women, and children have been subjected to such inhumane torture.
Many others like Alep Uddin have committed such injustices day after day. No one in this society stood by us. No media stood by us. We were labeled as terrorists and relegated to the category of non-humans. Muslim brothers and sisters who were in contact with us were also harassed in various ways.
Only Allah Ta’ala saw us, only Allah Ta’ala was our helper. I pray that this terrible injustice never returns to this country, and that no one is subjected to such oppression again.
And I curse all those oppressors who committed this torture and supported it. May Allah’s wrath fall upon people like Alep Uddin, may Allah’s wrath fall upon their families.
May Allah show them the most terrible punishment in this world, so that the hearts of the oppressed may find peace”
Also you can check victims husband interview at Face The People.
