Exiled journalists who endured personal sacrifices to uncover the truth

On 11 May 2007, a 26-year-old journalist named Tasneem Khalil, focusing on human rights and high level corruption, was detained by the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI). He was taken to a "torture cell" for criticising the military's alleged involvement in extrajudicial killings, torture, and other abuses.

Tasneem, having endured severe beatings, was released after 22 hours in captivity due to the intense pressure from media outlets, press freedom organisations, and human rights groups that rallied on his behalf.

After a month of hiding with his wife and daughter, Tasneem was eventually granted asylum in Sweden, where he has lived in exile ever since.

Back in the country, however, his mother and other remaining family members continued to face regular harassment from the Bangladesh security apparatus.

Fast forward to 2024. Following the extraordinary fall of the Sheikh Hasina regime after nearly 16 years, DGFI's Aynaghar, a secret internment centre where victims of enforced disappearances were held in inhumane conditions for the past decade and a half, has become the talk of the town.

But it's not as if everyone has suddenly come to know about Aynaghar. Its existence, along with its chilling name, came to light over two years ago in August 2022.

The Sweden-based independent news portal Netra News published an investigative whistleblower report, alleging that Bangladesh officials were detaining and torturing victims of enforced disappearances at Aynaghar.

Tasneem, as the editor-in-chief of Netra News, was one of the masterminds behind this shocking revelation. 

"We were able to uncover this because Sheikh Mohammad Salim, one of the detainees mentioned in our report, reached out to me. Later, we also made contact with another detainee, Hasinur Rahman," Tasneem shared with The Business Standard in a recent interview.

Alongside the report, which was published in both Bangla and English, photos of the prison cells were also released. These images, according to Tasneem, "were provided by active-duty military officers."

This was one of many instances where reports by the media in exile played a crucial role in documenting the atrocities of the Hasina regime, even in the face of sedition charges.

At a time when press freedom in Bangladesh was at an all-time low, making it nearly impossible for local media to publish anything remotely critical of the establishment, exiled journalists were indispensable in exposing the truth.

Another such journalist who played a significant role in this report was Zulkarnain Saer Khan. But even before the Aynaghar report in 2022, Zulkarnain had risen to fame after working on and appearing in Al Jazeera's widely discussed 2021 documentary All the Prime Minister's Men. Tasneem, too, was involved in this documentary. 

It uncovered how a criminal gang was collaborating with Bangladesh's security forces and maintained close ties with the country's then-Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina.

But the price Zulkarnain had to pay for this was beyond measure. 

As recently as March of last year, his brother Mahinur Khan was violently attacked by four unidentified men while out grocery shopping in the Maripur neighbourhood of Dhaka.

"Your brother writes about the PM? Against the government? He is a journalist? We will show you now," the attackers told Mahinur before leaving him injured on his legs and arms, and with a broken phone.

Mahinur previously had also been interrogated by the Bangladesh intelligence services. But ever since the release of the said documentary, Zulkarnain had been hiding in a safe location, and he could not even be in touch regularly with his brother or other family members, fearing that their phones would be tapped.

"There have also been smear campaigns against me, some of which appeared in the national mainstream media, aimed at casting doubt on the credibility of investigative journalism I conducted to expose the Sheikh Hasina regime," said Zulkarnain.

"I often received death threats through emails as well," Zulkarnain added.

Despite the fear and personal sacrifices, Zulkarnain continued to work with several prominent media organisations worldwide, including Al Jazeera's Investigative Unit (I-Unit), Netra News, Haaretz, and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), to produce comprehensive investigative reports on Bangladesh.

"I love my country and its people, and feel obliged to do something for them. This is my way of giving back to them," Zulkarnain said.

The story of David Bergman, an investigative journalist and filmmaker, is equally compelling.

He may be a British national, but he has strong connections to Bangladesh, as he is married to a prominent Bangladeshi lawyer, Barrister Sara Hossain. 

David lived in Bangladesh from 2004 until his visa was revoked by the Hasina-led government in 2017 due to his reporting on the war crimes trials, which questioned and contradicted the government's established narratives.

He was only able to reenter Bangladesh after the Hasina regime was ousted following the mass uprising. But during the seven years he was barred from the country, he continued to produce groundbreaking investigative journalism on Bangladesh from abroad.

In addition to leading the documentary All the Prime Minister's Men, he also co-founded Netra News. He remained actively involved with the site until late 2022 and continues to contribute occasionally. 

Since 2017, David's personal life was upended as he could no longer visit or reside in Bangladesh. The responsibility of travelling back and forth between Bangladesh and the UK then fell on his wife's shoulders.

There were also persistent threats to his family's safety in Bangladesh, especially after the release of the Al Jazeera documentary.

"To reduce the risk to their safety, I had to keep my family in the dark about any investigative work I was involved in. They never knew in advance what I was working on," Bergman revealed.

Conducting an in-depth investigation from outside the country was both a challenge and a blessing, according to David.

Investigative journalism demands rigorous fieldwork and on-the-ground reporting, which is difficult, if not impossible, to do from abroad.

"But at the same time, we were able to publish reports that, given the state of press freedom in Bangladesh, we wouldn't have dared to release if we were still in the country," David said with a smile.

"Without modern technology and communication mediums, pulling this off would have been extremely difficult," he added.

Zulkarnain shared that he had sources within various government offices and institutions that alerted him to potential wrongdoings. However, he always made it a point to confirm any information through multiple sources before delving deeper. He would then speak to relevant individuals, both on and off the record, to gain a more comprehensive understanding.

For Tasneem, the contributions of both the whistleblowers and the Netra News reporters operating within Bangladesh are invaluable. "To protect their safety, we can't disclose their names, but perhaps one day their efforts will be recognised," he reflected.

And how did the media in exile play a big role in mobilising the students and citizens for the July Revolution? Tasneem, Zulkarnain, and David, as journalists, prefer not to take any credit.

"It's up to you to decide, as you were in the country and saw how things played out firsthand. But it's true that during the internet blackout in Bangladesh, media in exile became the country's primary voice ," David said.

"When All the Prime Minister's Men came out, I expected an immediate explosion and that the government would come under immense pressure. But I was naive at the time. You saw how the government managed to sweep everything under the carpet," David added.

He, however, holds the belief that those reports from exile "laid the groundwork," as now, after two or three years, people in Bangladesh are openly discussing them. The full impact of these reports may become clear in the future.

And as Tasneem put it, "our sole focus was on doing proper journalism and uncovering the truth. Regardless of who is now in power, or whoever comes next, we will continue to pursue journalism, question them, and hold them accountable."