A/HRC/13/42* page 92 foreign intelligence agency) and the Intelligence Bureau. An officer who had worked in one of the detention centres reportedly admitted that torture techniques were used, based loosely on those used in Guantanamo and elsewhere in the “war on terror” of the Government of the United States. The techniques included the use of loud and incessant music, sleep deprivation, keeping prisoners naked to degrade and humiliate them, and forcibly administering drugs through the rectum to break down their dignity further.348 174. United Nations human rights mechanisms, which could carry out independent investigation of these allegations, have found it very difficult to engage with India. The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention requested an invitation to carry out a country visit in 2004, and again in 2005 and 2006. A request for an invitation to visit India by the Special Rapporteur on torture has been outstanding since 1993, despite several reminders. The Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions sought an invitation in 2000, and reiterated that request in 2005, 2006 and 2008. None of these requests received a positive response. In 1997, India reported to the Human Rights Committee349 and signed the Convention against Torture. However, the Government of India has not reported to, nor been examined by the Committee since,350 and has not ratified the Convention. As a result, United Nations human rights mechanisms have not been able to examine allegations of secret detention in India for over a decade. 3. Islamic Republic of Iran 175. Reports from the Islamic Republic of Iran indicate a pattern of incommunicado detention of political prisoners in secret, or at least unofficial, detention facilities. In a case typical of this pattern, according to information brought to the attention of the Government in a special procedures urgent communication of 15 April 2008, Majid Pourabdollah was arrested on 29 March 2008 in Tabriz; he was hospitalized three days after his arrest and transferred two days later from the hospital to an undisclosed location by the authorities. Two weeks later, his whereabouts were still not known.351 In its response to the communication, sent more than a year later, the Government stated that Majid Pourabdollah was a member of an extremist Marxist group that pursued “the objective of disturbing the security of the country”. The Government 348 “India’s secret torture chambers”, The Week, 12 July 2009. 349 Third periodic report submitted in July 1997, concluding observations adopted on 4 August 1997 (CCPR/C/79/Add.81). 350 351 The next periodic report would have been due on 31 December 2001. Communication of 15 April 2008 by the Chairperson-Rapporteur of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, and the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (A/HRC/10/44/Add.4).