Bangladesh rejects ‘death squad’ allegations

DHAKA: Bangladesh rejected Wednesday an international rights group’s claims that its Rapid Action Battalion police force was a “death squad” that had carried out 200 extrajudicial killings in the last two years.

“These allegations are unacceptable,” Home Secretary Abdus Sobhan Sikder told AFP Wednesday. In a report released Tuesday, New York-based Human Rights Watch called on the government to disband the elite paramilitary force unless it was held accountable for the hundreds of so-called “crossfire” killings.

The force is engaging in “death squad-like activities,” HRW’s Asia director Brad Adams told AFP, adding that more than 200 people had been killed by the RAB since the current Awami League government came to power in January 2009.

According to Sikder, only 91 people have been killed by the RAB since 2009 and in each case an investigation by magistrates had cited legitimate self-defence. “Everyone has the right to defend himself,” he said, adding that RAB personnel were subject to Bangladeshi law. afp