No plan to separate RAB from police, says state minister

There is no plan to separate Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) from police, State Minister for Home Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal has said.

Army officers, too, work in RAB that came into being as an elite police unit in 2004.

The junior minister took questions from the press corp about a media report that claimed RAB was to be taken out and brought directly under the ministry.

“That news isn’t accurate," he said.

“No direction was given for this proposal and no such committees exist,” he further said referring to the report.

Kamal, however, said there was a file from police desk that listed some ideas.

“A file arrived from police desk. But it only includes their thoughts and advises. This was not done on the ministry’s orders.”

“It’s just a proposal. It contains their (police’s) ideas, not the ministry’s.”

File Photo

When asked if the file will be forwarded to the Prime Minister’s Office, he said, “That is out of the question. The prime minister didn’t order it. The police desk has shared their thoughts.”

The government instead plans to make RAB a more ‘powerful and handsome’ force.

On the issue of RAB’s reform as it is frequently accused of violating human rights, he said, “We plan to do everything that is necessary to make something grand.”

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, whose government established the force, has been demanding that it be disbanded.

New York-based group Human Rights Watch recently wrote to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina urging her to at least pluck army officers out of RAB before dissolving it.

Terming RAB a ‘death squad’, it said the force was allowed to function with impunity by every government.

A New Delhi-based rights body - the Asian Centre of Human Rights (ACHR) - has opposed Bangladesh’s participation in UN missions in a report claiming the country was sending its ‘death squads’ for peacekeeping.

Three former army officers working in RAB have been arrested for their alleged ties to the seven murders in Narayanganj.