2 years lost, life shattered

He was around 15 when he was picked up, a ninth grader.

When he was returned two years later, his fingernails and toenails had been pulled out and he had lost his mind. The boy only foamed at the mouth and laughed.

The second interim report of the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances narrates the chilling tale of a teenage boy, and the story of how they found him.

Witnesses told the commission about a young boy, who exhibited clear signs of severe psychological distress when he was held at Rab's Taskforce Interrogation Cell. He was picked up in 2019.

"According to multiple accounts, he would cry constantly, and the guards would reportedly respond by escalating the physical abuse," says the report, which was submitted to the Chief Advisor's Office on June 6.

The commission interviewed a survivor who claimed that he had seen the same boy in the psychiatric ward of Kashimpur prison, with his nails removed. Another survivor met the same boy while being transported from jail to court. The boy had no food during the court visit, and the survivor shared his meal with him.

But luck struck when a victim shared that he had both seen the boy in prison where they served time together, and then later again at a bicycle repair shop.

It was that victim who went and located the boy and brought him to the commission.

"He had endured two years in secret detention, two more in prison, and ongoing mental health challenges as a result of sustained abuse," reads the commission report, which contains the cases of 10 minors who had been victims of enforced disappearance. In addition, multiple victims have reported to the commission that their nails were pulled out with pliers.

The commission found that the boy was psychologically unwell and his father impoverished.

The father told the commission how he found his son at a police station almost two years after he was picked up.

"I saw him from a distance, spoke, and went closer. He recognised me and smiled, but didn't say anything else. I asked, 'Where did your nails go? Show me your hands, your feet.' The nails on both feet were gone. The thumbnails on both hands were also gone," narrated the father.

The boy could not say anything to his father. He just said, "Can't be told."

The father asked the police where they found his son and was told that he was in Rab custody. He informed them that he had been missing for two years, and they told him that his son was accused in a case.

The commission spoke to the boy too. "I used to stay in the cell, when I went to the bathroom -- that's when they beat me with sticks. I used to cry a lot; I was in pain. I used to feel like going home. But they used to say, 'It's daytime, lie down. It's night, sleep. Don't speak. Don't make noises'," the boy told them.

"In that place, there were no friends. I was alone. An officer would come, ask me what my name was, what food I wanted, tell me to speak if I felt unwell. They said, 'Don't cry. If you're in pain, tell us'," he said.

"Now I don't feel pain, but back then it hurt a lot inside. When I came home, I felt really happy. I felt like I had gotten the whole world."

The teenager was taken to jail twice, once to Kashimpur, another time to Keraniganj.

The father tried to apply for bail but because he was a poor man, and could not manage the expenses. It took him one and a half years to process the paperwork.

The father said his son was not like this.

"He used to study. Now he just laughs by himself, foams at the mouth when spoken to, and can't speak properly. Not like before. I took him to a doctor. They prescribed medicine, but he doesn't take it. He says his body shakes, he falls asleep. He throws the medicine away," said the man.

But in spite of all this, the man is just happy to have his son back. His wife has passed away, and the child is all he has left.

"Everyone says, 'what has happened has happened, now just eat and live'. But I know how many things I had to swallow to reach this point. Now I don't even go to the lawyer anymore, because I don't have money."