DHAKA,
Shahidul Alam, a photographer and human rights advocate, claims that after being arrested on October 8 on a ship going for Gaza, Israeli police subjected him to psychological torture.
"I was subjected to mental abuse by Israeli soldiers. Numerous other members of the flotilla were subjected to physical abuse, he claimed.
After coming home from captivity, Shahidul Alam made this statement during a news conference held at the Drik office here today.
According to Shahidul Alam, Israeli soldiers have even threatened to shoot one of the demonstrators, pretending to be a member of Hamas, in an effort to incite fear within the prison facility.
He claimed that the detainees were already kneeling and having their wrists bound behind their backs when Israeli commandos peed on the area where they were being held.
The Israeli forces threw away his Bangladeshi passport, and they attacked him as he picked it up every time.
He also said that two other passengers were hit with the barrel of a machine gun for talking to each other at that time.
Shahidul Alam said they were kept in Israel’s most secret prison in the desert. Another fellow passenger who was detained from another ship told him that after the Israeli forces admonished him, saying, “You are a Hamas agent; you will be taken inside and shot down.”
Shahidul Alam said they went on a hunger strike in the prison, and almost everybody did not take any food during their stay in the prison, except a few who took food due to their physical weakness.
“We were given only one plate of food for two and a half days. The place where they were allowed to sleep was made of iron, and the condition of the toilets was also deplorable,” he added.
He said that in the nighttime, Israeli forces suddenly would enter the cells with machine guns. They would make loud noises, shout to stand up or give other orders, and try to create panic.
Replying to a query, Shahidul Alam said they have decided to set up a network internationally, as global leaders are in complete inertia on the issue.
“We have made a blueprint, and before coming back to home, we have decided that we will go again to Palestine with a voyage of thousands of ships,” he added.
-BSS
