Staff Correspondent

Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus has described the secret torture cells (known as Aynaghar) as horrific after visiting three of those.

“If I want to narrate it can be said that it is a horrific scene! Everything that happened there was dreadful. What I have heard is unbelievable! I think is it our world? Our society?” he told reporters after visiting three spots in Dhaka that were previously used as "torture cells and secret prisons".

It was the sample how they established Al-Jāhiliyyah (The Age of Ignorance), he said. “I have heard from those who were victims of brutalities. There is no explanation. They were picked up from roads, and explosives were placed in vehicles and were branded as militants, terrorists. Now I have come to know there are many more torture cells across the country,” he said.

Chief Adviser's Press Secretary Shafiqul Alam said thousands of victims of enforced disappearances were kept -- some for eight-nine years -- by security forces of the Sheikh Hasina regime in the Aynaghars, the secret prisons.

The Human Rights Watch has said Hasina herself ordered enforced disappearances and extrajudicial murders, Alam said.

Advisers Dr Asif Nazrul, Syeda Rizwana Hasan, Adilur Rahman Khan, Asif Mahmud, Mahfuj Alam and Nahid Islam, among others, were present.

Members of the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances, victims, local and international media accompanied the Chief Adviser during the visit in the spots located in Dhaka's Agargaon, Kachukhet and Uttara areas.

The Chief Adviser was shown an "electric chair" used in a torture cell in Agargaon.

Enforced disappearance victims also talked to the Chief Adviser during his visit to torture cells and secret prisons.