‘Politics behind HRW letter’

US group Human Rights Watch was asked to write to the prime minister, calling for the dismantling of RAB as part of a political ploy, Awami League leader Hasan Mahmud claims.

Staff Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 23 July 2014, 01:35 PM
Updated : 23 July 2014, 04:01 PM

“BNP politics is full of lies and conspiracies. They have been employing these two tactics to use the people as their shield,” he said at a discussion at Dhaka Reporters’ Unity in Dhaka on Wednesday.

“They also try to gain political benefits under the guise of organisations like Human Rights Watch.”

He said it was “proven how it got the Human Rights Watch to release a report seeking the disbanding of RAB”.

The New York-based HRW wrote to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday asking her to break up RAB that it claimed was beyond ‘reform’.

The group recommended that army officers be plucked out of RAB so it can be turned into a civilian force before it is terminated.

File Photo

The letter by Brian Adams, director of HRW’s Asia Division, said the elite police unit had been “allowed to operate with impunity by all successive governments.”
RAB Deputy Director General Col Ziaul Ahsan responded to the call by asking HRW to concentrate on the ongoing attacks by Israelis on Gaza instead.

“Leaders of BNP are not protesting the attacks on Gaza because they are afraid of displeasing their ‘lords’,” claimed Mahmud at the discussion to commemorate Tajuddin Ahmad, the first prime minister of liberated Bangladesh, on his 89th birthday.

“Tarique Zia, sitting in holy Madinah, is making unholy plots with (Delwar Hossain) Sayedee’s son,” said the Awami League leader.

Addressing Tarique Rahman, senior vice chairman of the BNP and eldest son of party Chairperson Khaleda Zia, he said: “You go to Singapore, Madinah. If possible come to Bangladesh. Come and prove that you’re not guilty. Your venomous fangs have been crushed by the Jan 5 polls.”

Tarique, accused in various cases at home, has been living in UK since 2008.