A Bangladeshi commission investigating abuses during the rule of ousted leader Sheikh Hasina has recommended disbanding the much-publicized Armed Police Force. The recommendation was made by a commission formed to investigate after 77-year-old Hasina fled the Prime Minister’s Office in Dhaka by helicopter to neighboring India due to a student-led uprising on August 5.
Her government has been accused of widespread human rights violations, including the extrajudicial killings of hundreds of political opponents and the unlawful abduction and disappearance of hundreds more. The Commission of Inquiry into Enforced Disappearances, formed by the caretaker government, has said it has found preliminary evidence implicating Hasina and other former senior officials in the disappearances by the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB).
The United States imposed sanctions on the RAB paramilitary police force, along with seven of its senior officers, in 2021 in response to reports that it was guilty of some of the worst human rights abuses during Hasina’s 15-year rule. “The RAB has never followed the law and has rarely been held accountable for its abuses, including enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings and abductions,” commission member Noor Khan Liton told AFP.
The commission has submitted its initial report to interim government leader Mohammad Yunus. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), one of the largest political parties in Bangladesh, has also demanded the abolition of the RAB. Senior BNP leader M. Hafizuddin Ahmed told reporters, “RAB is so distorted that it cannot be reformed.
He said, “According to medical studies, the only solution for a patient with gangrene is to amputate the affected limb.” The ‘Elite Police Unit’ was launched in 2004 as a way to deliver quick results in a country where the judicial system was notoriously slow. The unit was accused of serious charges of extrajudicial killings and of supporting Hasina’s political ambitions by suppressing dissent through kidnappings and assassinations.
In Bangladesh, human rights violations often include issues such as restrictions on freedom of speech and press, enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, and suppression of political opposition. Journalists and activists frequently face harassment and arrest under laws like the Digital Security Act, which is criticized for curbing dissent. Additionally, labor rights abuses and challenges faced by minority groups and refugees, especially the Rohingya, remain significant concerns. These issues have drawn criticism from both domestic and international human rights organizations.
