UK has no link with Bangladesh secret "torture" centres: Envoy

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British High Commissioner to Bangladesh, Sir Stephen Evans, has denied media reports of his government having links with torture centres in Bangladesh.

The Guardian had quoted sources as admitting that UK and Bangladeshi officials had met and exchanged information to protect Britain from attacks baing hatched in Bangladesh.

Evans said that the report was inaccurate and added that Britain never accept torture as a means of acquiring information.

"We take all allegations of torture and mistreatment very seriously. Our security co-operation with other countries is consistent with our laws and with our values," the BBC quoted Evans, as saying.

Evans, however, admitted that both countries had co-operated with each other as far as law enforcement is concerned, which includes the "sharing of information" that might be relevant to the security of the two nations.

A media investigation report had earlier claimed that the meetings between officials of both the countries had led to the investigation of over a dozen men of dual British-Bangladeshi nationality, and some even suffered horrific abuse at the hands of the Bangladeshi authorities.

British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith even flew to Dhaka for face-to-face meetings with senior officials of the Directorate-General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI) agency, whose use of torture was the subject of a detailed report by Human Rights Watch, the New York-based NGO. (ANI)


(2011-1-19/sify)