Inside Mind Aid, the hospital where ASP Anisul was beaten to death

Each of the three floors of Mind Aid has a soundproof room, in one of which Anisul Karim Shipon, a senior assistant superintendent of police, was beaten to death by employees of the mental health hospital.

There are at least five doors on the passage to the first-floor cell, six feet long and four feet wide, where Anisul died on Monday.

The owners of the private facility in Dhaka’s Adabor used a veranda to build the cell. They used a layer of four-inch-thick sponge and cloth to pad the cell. The door was also padded to reduce noise.    

With no ventilator shaft or window, the room has an air-conditioner and a CCTV camera.

Tanmay Prakash Biswas, a former director of Pabna Mental Hospital, said some rooms need to be padded so that the patients cannot injure themselves, but these rooms must have windows.

“It’s totally wrong to torture patients,” he added.

Dr Abu Hossain Md Moinul Ahsan, civil surgeon of Dhaka, visited the “psychiatry and de-addiction” hospital on Tuesday afternoon.

Moinul said such small rooms as the one where Anisul was beaten are never required to treat mentally ill patients.

Harunor Rashid, the deputy commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s Tejgaon zone, said the entire facility appeared to be a prison without any open space. “Every inch of the building has been used. Even the veranda has been turned into rooms without ventilation.”  

The reception desk and the cash counter are on the ground floor of the hospital. On the first floor, the dining room has a pool table. Each of the four bedrooms has six to seven single beds. The second floor has a study, a six-bed ward and two cabins.

The family took Anisul, 35, an assistant commissioner of traffic department at Barishal Metropolitan Police, for mental health treatment.

Sharmin Akter, one of the hospital employees, said Anisul appeared normal and he climbed the stairs with the other employees to the first floor.

“Suddenly everyone was in a hurry and I heard people shouting on the first floor. Someone was shouting -- ‘Oxygen, oxygen,’” Sharmin said.  

Sharmin also rushed to the first floor at the time and saw the doctor coming afterwards. The doctor tried hard, but Anisul lay there motionless.

He was taken to the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases where the doctors declared him dead.

Harun said the family reached the hospital with Anisul around 10:30 am. Marketing Manager Joy took him to the first floor when he wanted to go to the toilet after finishing his breakfast there. The employees did not allow his sister Umme Salma to go to the first floor.  

Joy came down and took Salma to the first floor around 12 pm. Salma saw her brother lying unconscious and the family took him to the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases, where the doctors declared him dead.

DC Harun said CCTV footage of the Mind Aid hospital showed some people beating and pushing Anisul into a room. Three to four people kneeled on his back and the others tied his hands. They hit him in the back of his neck and head with their elbows, while others punched him.

Sharmin, who joined the hospital’s staff around two months ago, said no-one could gather the courage to prevent the assault on Anisul because one of the owners, Marketing Manager Arif Mahmud Joy, was there.

The hospital stands accused of torturing other patients. The drug rehabilitation and mental health centres in Bangladesh face similar allegations.

Faruk Molla, the inspector at Adabor Police Station, said the hospital was launched with a capacity to treat 24 patients one and a half years ago. It had 16 patients before Monday’s incident and all of them left after the killing of Anisul.

Nazimuddin Mandal, 35, was admitted to the hospital on Sept 26. He did not want to talk about the treatment at the hospital when he got discharged after several weeks, his brother Wasiuddin said.

“We’ve later learnt that he was beaten on different occasions for small excuses. They do not feed the patients properly. God saved my brother,” Wasiuddin said.  

The police have arrested 11 people accused in a case started by Anisul’s father Faizuddin Ahmed against 15 people. The arrestees include Dr Niaz Morshed, one of the owners.

Civil Surgeon Moinul said Mind Aid was denied a hospital licence in February, due to a lack of documents, manpower and other facilities. Police shut the hospital on Tuesday.