Israeli forces tortured me mentally: Shahidul Alam

Noted photographer and human rights activist Shahidul Alam has said the Israeli forces tortured him mentally after detaining from a Gaza-bound vessel on October 8.

“The Israeli forces carried out mental torture on me. They carried out physical torture on many others of the flotilla,” he said.

Shahidul Alam said this at a press conference at Drik office here today after returning home from captivity.

Shahidul Alam said there have been attempts to create panic inside the detention centre and Israeli forces even threatened to shoot one of their fellow protesters, claiming to be Hamas supporter.

He said Israeli forces had already urinated on the place where the detainees were kept with hands tied behind their backs and forced to kneel.

The Israeli forces threw away his Bangladeshi passport and they attacked him as he picked up it 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 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 night time, 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 come back to home we have decided that we will go again to Palestine with a voyage of thousand of ships,” he added.