2024-09-03 22:02:32
Former army officer Brigadier General Abdullahil Aman Azmi, son of late Ghulam Azam, ex-emir of Jamaat-e-Islami, said that he was kept hidden for eight years for two reasons.
He said this in a press conference held at the National Press Club auditorium on Tuesday (September 3) via the online platform Zoom.
Highlighting the experience of going missing, Azmi said, I was detained for two reasons. They are, my ancestral identity and I was vocal against India. I want all neighborhood friends. A friend who harms me, I cannot consider him a friend but an enemy. As long as India behaves as a friend, I will embrace it, if India behaves as an enemy, I will think of it as an enemy and call it an enemy. Someone told me while in secret detention that you are the victim of a deep conspiracy by foreign powers. Because of this, I have been repeatedly asked why you are vocal against India.
This former army officer is suffering from various physical complications including teeth and eyes while staying in the mirror room of Gupta prison for eight years. For that reason, he joined the press conference from that hospital while undergoing treatment in a hospital in the capital. Joining him, he expressed his condolences, gratitude and wishes to the martyrs, injured and those who were injured and killed in the movement of the students. Also highlighted the actual number of martyrs in the war of independence and the relevance of the national anthem. He demanded that the national anthem and the constitution be changed.
He said, I have left this national anthem to this government. The national anthem we have now is against the existence of our independent Bangladesh. It represents the era of cancellation of the partition of Bengal to unite the two Bengals. How can the music that is made to unite the two Bengalis be the national anthem of independent Bangladesh? This music was imposed on us by India in 1971. There are many songs to sing the national anthem. This government should form a new commission and create a new national anthem.
Former army officer Brigadier General (retired) Abdullahil Aman Azmi said that he had not seen the light of day during his imprisonment for the last eight years, and was afraid of crossfire every night. They misbehaved with me.
Azmi said, I thought repeatedly, they might kill me by crossfire. I used to cry to Allah after reading Tahajjad. May my body go to my family.
He said, when they came to my house, I asked them who you are, what is your identity, show me your identity card. I wanted to know if there was any warrant for my arrest. They did not answer my words.
He said, at one stage he took me in the car. I was taken to a place blindfolded. It was left there, in a dark room. If she wanted to go to the toilet, she would take her blindfolded.
Abdullahil Aman Azmi was picked up on the night of August 22, 2016. At that time, Jamaat-e-Islami said that he was arrested from his house in Bara Moghbazar of the capital by identifying himself as law enforcement officers in white clothes.
Later Abdullahil Aman Azmi was compulsorily released from the army by the Awami League government. However, the detention was claimed by Jamaat-e-Islami several times, but it was denied by law enforcement agencies.
On the night of August 5, some former army officers and relatives of the missing persons gathered at Kachukshe in Dhaka Cantonment area and demanded the release of the ‘mirror prisoners’ of the Directorate of Defense Intelligence (DGFI). After that they came back free.