Khaleda calls for disbanding RAB

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia has asked the government to break up Bangladesh’s elite anti-crime force Rapid Action Battalion (RAB).

The force, launched in 2004 during the BNP-led alliance government’s tenure, has come under scathing criticism for its members committing crimes in past 10 years.

“RAB’s activities should be examined. It should be disbanded if needed and another elite force could be formed,” Khaleda said on Sunday.

Her remarks came in the backdrop of several RAB officers purportedly being involved in the recent abduction and murder of seven people in Narayanganj.

She was speaking with journalists after visiting the family of a missing BNP leader at his house in Dhaka’s Shahinbagh.

Several men posing as RAB officers took away General Secretary of BNP's Ward number 38 unit Sajedul Islam Sumon, his family alleges.

Khaleda said RAB in recent times got involved in abduction and murders.

“RAB is not needed anymore to kill people. I demand its dissolution.”

Since its inception, RAB has been censured by many human rights organisations for committing extrajudicial killings. But Khaleda’s administration that ran the country from 2001 to 2006 let the elite force continue.

The incumbent Awami League-led government is also for keeping it.

Recently, BNP acting Secretary General Mirza Fahkrul Islam Alamgir questioned RAB’s necessity, drawing protests from Awami League leaders.

State Minister for Home Affairs Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal also rejected the idea of disbanding the elite force.

The BNP has alleged that RAB was being used for ‘political purposes’, specially for repressing the opposition.

Khaleda on Sunday also demanded proper investigation into the abductions and killings across the country.