AMN
Bangladesh Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal has said that propaganda is being spread against the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB). The Home Minister said that RAB has been working to control militancy and terrorism in the coountry and it was an injustice that the elite forces was facing criticism, reports the official news agency BSS.
Responding to a query, the minister said that those who had created the RAB during their regime now dislike the anti-crime elite force despite its positive role against drug smuggling, food adulteration, piracy and extremism. He said that the police would not remain silent if someone fires upon them. Counter firing from police will take place as part of their safety, said the minister.
The elite law enforcement agency of Bangladesh has recently come into controversy after the US state department imposed sanctions against 7 of its current and former senior officials on December 10.
Meanwhile, 12 human rights bodies have called upon the UN to ban Bangladesh’s Rapid Action Battallion from peacekeeping operations for their alleged involvement in torture, enforced disappearances, and other human rights violations. The letter addressed to the UN under-secretary-general Jean-Pierre Lacroix stated that the UN should send a clear signal that organisations violating human rights will not be part of UN peacekeeping operations.