Tek Nath Rijal recounts tale oftorture in Bhutan jail

Prakash Acharya/Kamal Dev Bhattarai

KATHMANDU: Tek Nath Rijal, the veteran refugee leader of Bhutanese democratic movement, can hardly sleep these days. He, now, lives in Kathmandu. Many unusual and inhuman things, which he experienced during the two-decade movement, haunt him most of the time. He still believes that ‘cruel’ Bhutanese authorities are controlling his mind even today through a mind control device, a scientific electronic device.


Rijal’s present psychological and physical condition clearly depicts that he is living a painful and ‘unstable’ life. Rijal’s wife Kaushila says, “I could not find my real Tek Nath when I met him after he was released from jail and his earlier qualities are still missing. He has lost many of his original qualities. His habits and behaviour have changed.”


Rijal has recently published his second book ‘Torture, Killing Me Softly’ in English. His earlier book ‘Nirbasan’, in Nepali, had gained huge popularity.


‘Torture, Killing Me Softly’ is based on his 10-year jail term in Bhutan. The book not only delves into Rijal’s life but also details the extreme level of torture one human being can afflict on another human being. It talks about the use of ‘mind control device’ to torture him and a number of Bhutanese freedom fighters. The device, internationally, is regarded a big human rights violation.


“This book describes the hell named Bhutanese prisons and is the first documentation of mind control in this part of the globe,” says Pramod Kaphley of the book. “I have presented an account of my harrowing experiences and injustice I continue to suffer, for which the king and his regime of tyranny are mainly responsible. I have been the victim of mind control for the last 19 years,” Rijal writes in the book.


As Rijal is living a painful life because of extreme torture by using a ‘mind control electronic device’, he was unable to properly express his horrifying tale. That’s why he had to languish in a room for three months with an Indian scholar to extract all his bitter experiences of the prison life. Scientist and researcher Dr Arun Kumar Singh had created a distinct psychological atmosphere to make Rijal recall the events and record them in proper order.


The book informs about the scientific techniques of giving torture.


“I found his experiences of life thrilling and absorbing. The book


gave me adequate knowledge of why


he was imprisoned and how he was inhumanly tortured and brutally persecuted by the Bhutanese authorities using mind-control device and other psychological tactics,” says Prof Indrajit Rai, a military expert.


Rai, an informed authority on the ‘mind-control device’, says, “It is an electromagnetic mind control technique, which can take full control of the person’s body and mind permanently. It uses modulated microwaves to produce audible voices in the person’s head. It is in the form of subliminal hypnotic command and the victim can be hypnotically programmed for the years without knowing. The motive of mind control is to destroy the targeted person’s life. He digresses from his goal, forgets his mission, behaves strangely with his family and relatives and can not follow his routine life. It is used to elicit the required information from the prisoner as it hypnotises him.”


“With a view to deviating him from his goal of fighting for democracy, the Bhutanese government used these devices on him and pumped out all his thoughts and feelings. From the experiences of such victims it reveals that there is an acute need to take extra care in handling them as their minds are destabilised, they always feel lonely, insecure, totally helpless and living in permanent terror and fear of unknown,” Rai noted.


Rijal says, “Owing to non-stop intrusion in my mind, my political career and family life has been totally disturbed. Moreover, as a result of this persistent torture, I continue to suffer from a host of physical aberrations and many organs in the body are malfunctioning.” Rijal has listed many more adverse effects of the device.


The book exposes how the rulers of Bhutan have been successful in keeping international human rights groups in the dark.

Torture devices


Lingual


Your wife eloped with ……… Your house was gutted. Do you know, no one has returned alive who has been brought here? (use of many indecent terms frequently, which Rijal used to overhear)


Physical


Tying hands and legs with a rope, putting pins, nails, glass and other non-eatable things in meal, blindfolding, making him eat like an animal, giving flour with water and salt for eating, beating with canes, sticks, batons, chains, leather belts, rifle butts, on the back, head, arms and feet. Torture was not confined to primitive physical assault by using whips, clamps, chains, ropes and giving electronic shocks but also involved application of various scientific devices on my consciencePsychological Exploring privacy, compelling to reveal personal thoughts and creating psychological terror by using different scientific techniques.