'I was picked up on 7 Aug, kept at Aynaghor for 8 days': Gen Zia tells court

Former Bangladesh Army official Ziaul Ahsan has alleged that he was picked up on 7 August and was held at the Aynaghor, countering police reports of arresting him last night from Khilkhet.

"A team of DGFI picked me up from my house on 7 August. I was kept at the Aynaghor for the last eight days. I am not involved with any murder, enforced disappearance," the former director general of the National Telecommunication Monitoring Centre (NTMC) told Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Arfatul Rakib during the hearing of a remand plea against him.

He said, "Ask anyone who has been freed from the Aynaghor to say that I held them there. The way I am being blamed is not right. I am unwell. I am suffering from many complications, including in my heart.

In its remand application, the police claimed that Gen Zia had confessed to Bangladesh buying Israeli spyware Pegasus, developed by the Israeli cyber-arms company NSO Group that is designed to be covertly and remotely installed on mobile phones running iOS and Android

However, in the court, he gave a different statement.

"There is nothing called Pegasus. I did not track any phones," he told the court when asked about the Israeli spyware.

At that time, pro-BNP lawyers at the court opposed his statement, alleging that he was complicit in genocide and that he had no right to speak. But Gen Zia's sister Advocate Nazneen Nahar objected to their object.

Gen Zia also pointed out that no cases were filed against him while he was with the RAB.

Major General Zia was arrested in the capital's Khilkhet area last night based on a tip-off, according to Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP).

He was arrested in a case filed with the New Market Police Station over the killing of Shahjahan Ali, a hawker, in the Science Lab area of the capital during the recent student movement.

The DMP, however, sent a statement to the media tonight as a "correction" to its previous statement. 

The DMP said Maj Gen Zia had taken the Army's refuge fearing that his personal security would be disturbed. The Army handed him over to the police on the night of 15 August and then he was arrested, it added.

Earlier, Salman F Rahman, former adviser to the recently ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina, and former law minister Anisul Huq were arrested in the same case. A Dhaka court placed both of them on a 10-day remand each.

Meanwhile, Gen Zia's claim about being held at Aynaghor or The House of Mirror, a secret prison for victims of enforced disappearance allegedly operated by the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI), also contradicts DGFI's claims that no one is kept there anymore.

Following the fall of the Awami League-led government, human rights activists visited the DGFI headquarters in the capital's Cantonment area on 7 August, where an intelligence official claimed there were no detainees in the Aynaghor, TBS reported earlier this month.

"Some representatives of the organisation under the banner of 'Mayer Dak' and some human rights activists went to meet DGFI officials who told us that the alleged Aynaghor is currently unoccupied," human rights activist Dr CR Abrar told TBS in front of the DGFI headquarters, according to the report.

The secret prison, where victims of enforced disappearance were kept, was first reported by Netra News in 2022. The government had long denied its existence.

No one kept in Aynaghor: DGFI to human rights activists

Police today produced Gen Zia in the court seeking a 10-day remand, but granted the police 8-day. 

Major General Zia, a 2-Star rank Bangladesh Army officer, was relieved from service on 6 August. He had been serving as the chief of NTMC since 2022. Before that, he was the director of that company. He was replaced as NTMC director general by Major General ASM Ridwanur Rahman.

Ziaul Ahsan became the vice-captain of RAB-2 in 2009 when he was a major. 

In the same year, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and appointed director of the intelligence wing of the RAB headquarters.