Shahidul Alam recounts ordeal after Israeli forces intercepted flotilla

Renowned photographer and rights activist Shahidul Alam has shared a vivid account of his journey on the flotilla towards Gaza, and of the torture he and others endured after their ship was intercepted and they were imprisoned by Israeli forces.

The Israeli forces intercepted their ship in international waters on October 6 and took them under duress to a high-security Israeli prison deep in the desert.

Shahidul first flew from Dhaka to Italy on September 28 and set sail for Gaza from Italy on September 30. He returned home after nearly three days of detention in the prison, with the help of Turkish authorities.

He said when they disembarked from the ship, they were taken down one by one -- forced to lie face down, hands pulled far behind their backs, and heads down.

"Some of us had our hands tied with those plastic zip-lock style hand restraints."

"There were various kinds of torture. The main form, I would say, was mental torture. Because while there were some physical blows, the psychological torment was far greater," Shahidul said at a press conference at Drik Bhaban this afternoon.

"In the prison, two Turkish crew members were beside me. They couldn't speak English. When they tried to talk to each other in their own language, the soldiers jabbed them with their machine guns and banged the barrels to make loud, frightening noises. That sort of intimidation was common," he said.

For him, what hurt the most was not the physical torture.

"I had my passport with me, and one of them threw it into the dirt. That, I think, hurt me more than anything physical. I picked it up; he snatched it and threw it again. I picked it up once more, and he did it again -- and then they jumped on me. These sorts of things happened repeatedly," he said, describing how Israeli forces treated them.

Next to him in the jail was a Tunisian man named Ali, who was wearing a Palestinian T-shirt. The Israeli soldiers told him to take the T-shirt off. When he refused, they jumped on him.

Ali and another man named Adnan were both blindfolded and handcuffed.

"Adnan tried to help Ali, but the Israeli forces attacked him as well. We were forced to kneel in that position for about two hours, head bent down. For me, it was particularly painful, as I already have some physical difficulties," said the photographer.

"They were in pain. One of the soldiers told Ali, 'you love Islam', and he replied, 'no, I love Palestine'. He was slapped again."

In prison, he met a Bangladeshi man named Liaquat, who had joined the flotilla from the UK. Shahidul said Liaquat told him that the soldiers had threatened, "you'll be taken inside and shot".

Everyone was tortured in one way or another -- no one was spared, he said.