Bangladesh must end extrajudicial killings, rights group says

[News_Editor]

Bangladesh must end extrajudicial killings, rights group says

2011-08-25 08:41:53 GMT+7 (ICT)

LONDON (BNO NEWS) -- Rights group Amnesty International on Wednesday urged Bangladesh authorities to honor their pledge to stop extrajudicial executions by its special police force, the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB).

Amnesty International said in a new report that the RAB has been implicated in the killings of at least 700 people since its inception in 2004. But the force has consistently denied responsibility and justifies the killings as accidental or as a result of officers acting in self-defense, according to the report.

"Hardly a week goes by in Bangladesh without someone being shot by RAB with the authorities saying they were killed or injured in 'crossfire' or a 'gun-fight'. However the authorities choose to describe such incidents, the fact remains that they are suspected unlawful killings," said Abbas Faiz, Amnesty International's Bangladesh Researcher.



"It is appalling that virtually all alleged instances of illegal RAB killings have gone unchallenged or unpunished. There can be no justice if the force is the chief investigator of its own wrong-doings," Faiz said.



The London-based group said at least 200 alleged RAB killings have occurred since January 2009 when the current Awami League government came to power, despite the Prime Minister's pledge to end extrajudicial executions. In addition, at least 30 people have been killed in other police operations since early 2010. 



The report added that Bangladesh's police and RAB continue to receive a wide range of military and police equipment from overseas, including from Austria, Belgium, China, Czech Republic, Italy, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, Turkey and the United States. The rights group called upon these countries to refrain from supplying arms to Bangladesh since they can be used to commit extrajudicial executions.

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