Disbanding RAB: Can a 'death squad' be transformed by changing its uniform?
On Tuesday, the Home Adviser indicated that RAB will soon see a change in uniform and if necessary, a change in its name. But how effective will these symbolic changes be?
Alep Uddin, a former Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) commander, is back in the headlines. Arrested in November last year, he was produced in front of the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) on Thursday.
His crimes? Enforced disappearance, rape and torture, which the tribunal's Chief Prosecutor Tajul Islam said the court has found proof of, including the rape of an enforced disappearance victim's wife, multiple times threatening her with her husband's murder.
This cements perhaps the latest proof of RAB's incorrigible character and a legacy of crimes, which hosts a long trail of abuses and torture.
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For instance, cartoonist Ahmed Kabir Kishore spent 10 months in pre-trial detention in Bangladesh under the infamous DSA starting in May 2020. In a 2023 The Guardian story, his tortured days at the hands of RAB were detailed.
It read, "For three days, he was kept blindfolded and handcuffed in a tiny room. Then the interrogation and torture began. 'They beat me all across my body using sticks,' said Kishore. 'They made me lie down and beat my feet.'... When the blindfold was removed, Kishore understood with dread that he was in the hands of the RAB."
His wounds would later turn septic. Thanks to international outrage, Kishore made bail in 2021, a fate that escaped hundreds of Bangladeshi civilians and political activists, particularly in the last 16 years.
The elite anti-terrorism unit of the Bangladesh police, formed in 2004, earned a reputation several years ago for its very long list of human rights violations — including extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances — and the impunity it had enjoyed when the government turned a blind eye to the allegations against the outfit.
And the allegations have come from far and wide quarters, including from the United States, the European Union, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, not to mention a vast pool of national media reports uncovering its crimes.
The latest development in the discourse of "disbanding" RAB is the fact-finding report from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). While it accused several law enforcement agencies, along with RAB, of committing serious human rights violations and killings during the July uprising last year, it recommended disbanding RAB.
Given the long grave track record of this outfit's widely documented wrongdoings, extra-legal and unconstitutional activities and years-long advocacy for its dissolution by many, now coupled with the OHCHR's recommendation, what could have been the interim government's response?
Surely, not one that is palliative.
On Tuesday, the Home Adviser's comment (or indication) that RAB will soon see a change in uniform and if necessary, a change in its name, rather than dissolution raised concerns. For one, how effective will it make these symbolic, at best, changes, rather than address the call for its dissolution?
'What is the benefit of changing a name, if the job description remains the same?'
"This is not a proper response to the anxiety expressed by the people for the last many years because they were directly involved in extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances," said Barrister Jyotirmoy Barua.
According to Ain O Salish Kendra, from April 2004 to June 2024, at least 1,200 people were killed in RAB's so-called "crossfires," reported the Daily Star. Additionally, on 5 November 2024, the inquiry commission on enforced disappearances said it received approximately 1,600 complaints as of 31 October; and 172 were linked to RAB.
For the sake of argument, even if we are to see past the absence of "any moral ground" for its continued existence, Barua argued, it does not even have any legal ground to exist. For instance, Bangladesh police were formed through the 1861 Police Act, the Army was formed as per the 1952 Army Act, and so on, "but there is no legal sanction or law to allow the government to create an elite force like RAB," he explained.
While RAB is under the jurisdiction of the Home Affairs Ministry — such as the combined forces of police, BDR, etc, it functions as part of the Defence Ministry, which functions under direct orders of the prime minister. "This is contradictory by itself. There is a rule pending in the high court division against the formation of RAB in 2004," added Barua.
In the absence of any legal ground for its existence, the symbolic initiatives will serve no good. "It [the changes/reforms mentioned by the interim govt] is a cunning device to keep the organization alive," said Barua, adding "For a terrifying organisation which does not have any examples of good work from its inception, which is already sanctioned — both individually and as an organisation, what is the purpose of these changes? The Home Adviser must explain."
Another point is that other special units or teams in the police department created under the law, such as SWAT and what have you, are adequate to maintain law and order. Then why keep RAB intact?
Former IG Mohammad Nurul Huda reiterated, to an extent. The impact of these symbolic changes "can be marginal. However, the reason why the UN is asking for it to be disbanded, that needs to be hit," he said, adding, "If the modus operandi is extra-constitutional, extra-legal, that needs to be addressed."
Not just for its engagement in extrajudicial killings, which earned RAB its tag name as the "Death Squad," but it had also actively participated in enforced disappearances. The plainclothes — particularly in all white knock on the door at the crack of dawn or middle of the day also emerged as a pattern of RAB's activities. Kishore was picked up by RAB in a similar manner.
Huda argued, that if RAB was kept within the bounds of the law, then it would not have raised any problems. However, "they resorted to extra-legal measures, and this happens because it comes from a political direction," he said.
He described how its functions and the crimes it is accused of would not have been made possible without top order from the government. The crux of the problem will remain, and making palliative changes will "perhaps have a marginal impact."
"For substantive measures, it is important to look into legal backgrounds, into why [whatever] happened, happened," said Huda.
He also added the allegations were not as many when it was created in 2004 under BNP. "However, and it may be because the AL regime lasted for as many years as it did, those allegations increased, (which is) possibly why the largest number of complaints are against them [RAB]," he said.
It is noteworthy at this point that BNP has advocated for the dissolution of RAB earlier.
On this, Huda aired scepticism. He explained how only one outfit or individual was not responsible for the atrocities committed during the July uprising. "So does that mean everyone has to change their names? It is one of the questions we have at the moment."
