Human Rights Watch (HRW), the New York based rights group has urged the Bangladesh authorities to disband the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) immediately following the Narayanganj Court verdict sentencing 26 people, including 16 members from the battalion after finding them guilty of murdering seven people.The HRW also called for replacing the RAB with a ‘rights respecting force’. The call was made by Meenakhi Ganguly, its South Asia director writing in its website on Friday alleged the “ RAB being for years deployed by successive governments not only to fight crimes but what she alleged often as an ‘in-house death squad’, leaving a string of extrajudicial killings that often was referred to as ‘crossfire deaths’ and responsible for torture, disappearance and arbitrary arrests in their wake.
“And for years, almost none of the members of RAB were held to account for these crimes,” she alleged.
Describing the Narayanganj district and sessions court verdict on January 16 a ‘very rare’ the HRW statement referred to sentencing of the 26 people, including 16 RAB members to death for their role in a 2014 politically-motivated murder case in which 9 other RAB members were sentenced to prison terms, the HRW noted it opposes the death penalty and would not call for carrying it out.
The statement further observed that “ for too long, RAB officials have been shielded from prosecution by successive governments, some even justifying their crimes. But in this case, the court has found a local Awami League politician Nur Hossain, crossed the line by contracting members of RAB-11,the unit deployed in the area, to abduct and kill his political rival Nazrul Islam, also an Awami League official”.
The HRW statement alleged that those convicted are not only ones responsible for the situation. “ The government has responsibilities too, because of the climate of impunity it has created. In recent cases, when RAB and other law enforcement agencies have disappeared people, witnesses say officers arrived claiming they were from the administration”, an open admission they worked for the state. Many of the disappeared people have later turned up dead,” the statement further alleged.
The rights group further said, the prosecution of the RAB members is a welcome step towards ending violence and impunity. “ But it should not only happen when the victim is a ruling party member,” the HRW remarked.
Referring to what it said, the demand of Bangladesh Awami Leaguer while it was in opposition calling for disbanding the RAB, the HRW further observed that “before taking office in 2009 Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said, she would reform the RAB”.
The HRW statement further remarked “this has not happened. So it is time for the government to take immediate steps to disband the RAB and replace it with a rights respecting force”.
Meanwhile, the DG of the RAB Benajir Ahmed has said, RAB as a force was not responsible for the individual actions of those who were sentenced. It was their own responsibility not the RAB, the DG added. – Staff Reporter
