Memories of Jamaat leader Mir Quasem’s torture frighten survivors even today

Survivors of the infamous Dalim Hotel have said the shrieks and cries of prisoners being tortured at the hotel continue to haunt them even today.

Dalim Hotel was one of the torture cells of Al-Badr militia and served as the outfit’s headquarters.

Led by its leader Mir Quasem Ali, the outfit let loose a reign of terror and inflicted unbearable pain on the inmates in many crude ways, say survivors.

Electric shocks, beating up people, crushing their lips, piercing the body with bayonets and such other torture techniques were part of the torture at the cell.

The torture sessions would be carried out under the command of Mir Quasem, say survivors.

Many survivors claim to have seen Quasem in person at the hotel.

Recounting his experience at the hotel, BLF commander Sayed Mohammed Emran told bdnews24.com that he had been picked up from his home along with six other family members.

“I was blindfolded and locked up in a small dark room. They would regularly beat me up at the instruction of Mir Quasem.

“I was given stale food every two days and if anyone wanted water, the Al-Badr cadres would provide pots of toilet water. Many inmates were forced to drink urine even.”

Emran added, “It was heart-wrenching to hear the entire three-storey building resonate with the shrieks of the inmates being tortured in the various rooms.”

He said he had heard from other prisoners that it was in one of these rooms of the hotel that young freedom fighter Jashim Uddin Ahmed was tortured to death.

Speaking of Mir Quasem, he remembers that the Al-Badr cadres would say, “Dr Khan aa gaya, Quasem sahib aa gaya (Dr Khan has come, Mr Quasem has come)”

Journalist and freedom fighter Nasir Uddin Choudhury, who was picked up from an Andorkella safe house, also remembers the shrieks and screams. “The Al-Badr had made the hotel their headquarters. I still remember the screams of the inmates being tortured.”

He told bdnews24.com he was also exposed to inhuman torture at the behest of Mir Quasem.

Freedom fighter Jahangir Choudhury was rounded up by the Al-Badr commander’s men on Nov 23, 1971 and sent to Dalim Hotel.

Jahangir, a witness at the war crimes tribunal against Mir Quasem, had his lips crushed during torture. He, too, remembers the cries emanating from the rooms as those in favour of the freedom movement were tortured inhumanly.

Under the guidance of the Al-Badr and supported by the Pakistan Army, several torture cells had sprouted  up in the Chittagong prior to the liberation.

But, Dalim Hotel surpassed the rest in terms of the brutality that was meted out here.

Freedom fighters, liberation sympathisers and Hindus were rounded up and tortured in those cells by Mir Quasem’s Al-Badr outfit.

Hotel Dalim was originally “Mahamaya”, a building owned by a Hindu landlord. It stands along the Telegraph Office Road at Chittagong.

“Mahamaya” was snatched from its owner by Quasem’s men and converted into a torture cell and renamed.

This was the headquarters of the Al-Badr operations at Chittagong.

On Dec 16, 1971, just before the liberation, Mir Quasem and his men deserted the building and fled.

Locals then rescued the survivors.

Of the 14 cases against Mir Quasem at the International Crimes Tribunal, 12 relate to the torture of freedom fighters at Dalim Hotel.