Inside the Secretive 'Mirror House': Bangladesh's Hidden Detention Centers and the Shadows of Enforced Disappearances

An investigative whistleblower report by the Sweden-based independent news portal Netra News revealed that Bangladeshi officials are detaining and torturing forcibly disappeared individuals in the Mirror House. The report also disclosed the possible location of the secret prison where it is believed that victims of enforced disappearances are being held in Bangladesh. The report is based on the on-the-record accounts of two individuals, Hasinur Rahman and Sheikh Mohammad Selim, who said they were detained inside the prison in the heart of Dhaka.

Who Was Kept in the Mirror House?

During Sheikh Hasina's rule, many leaders and activists of the opposition party disappeared without a trace. Even members of the military are included in this list. The Mirror House is a secret detention centre used by camp intelligence agencies.

According to a report by Anandabazar, the "Mirror House" is a "disappearance chamber." During Hasina's rule, from 2009 to September 2021, 605 people were secretly detained there.

From 2009 to 2017, 402 people went missing in Bangladesh with direct or indirect support from the government, according to Dhaka-based human rights organisation Odhikar. Between 2014 and July 2019, 344 individuals were victims of enforced disappearances in Bangladesh. Among them, 40 were found dead, 66 were found in government custody, and according to Ain o Salish Kendra, 203 are still missing. Those who returned after being missing for a long time remained silent about their ordeal. It is believed that these individuals were kept in the Mirror House.

Among those detained in the Mirror House were former professor and academician of North South University Mobashar Hasan, former ambassador Maruf Zaman, and businessman Aniruddha Kumar Roy.

In addition, those recently released from the Mirror House include Bangladeshi barrister and Jamaat-e-Islami leader Mir Quasem Ali's son Mir Ahmad Bin Quasem, former military general and Jamaat-e-Islami leader Ghulam Azam's son Abdullah Aman Azmi, and Michael Chakma, spokesperson for the political organisation United People's Democratic Front (UPDF) in the Chittagong Hill Tracts.

For these incidents, including extrajudicial killings, the United Nations and various human rights organisations, such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, condemned the then Bangladesh government.

During this time, the families of the disappeared created a platform called "Mayer Daak" (A Mother's Call). This organisation was formed to bring attention to the incidents where family members were forcibly disappeared by government agencies in Bangladesh during the Awami League-led government's rule from 2009 to the present day. A Bangladeshi private news outlet speculated that there might be several other such detention and torture centres across the country.

Notably, Sheikh Hasina, who recently fled the country after resigning from the position of Prime Minister, could not tolerate dissent. For this reason, she created the Mirror House for political detainees. It was a place of terror for political prisoners—a detention centre for opponents created by Hasina. It was a way to silence the voices of dissenters. The Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI) had 23 secret detention centres across the country, some located in Dhaka. According to the 2024 Human Rights Watch report, more than 600 cases of enforced disappearances occurred in Bangladesh from the year Sheikh Hasina came to power in 2009 until her fall.

The report states that very few detainees were released from the Mirror House. However, some were released after lengthy judicial processes. Many others were victims of encounters. Investigations into such incidents in Bangladesh have been rare. Many who were held in the Mirror House died after enduring torture for days. Their bodies were then disposed of. No records were kept of those who were arrested. Only those who Hasina trusted were given responsibility for the Mirror House. No laws allowed family members to visit or communicate with the detainees in the Mirror House.