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Rights activists concerned at Rab's impunity

Rab denies having impunity

Ashutosh Sarkar
In agreement with the European Parliament resolution that urged the government to end impunity to the Rapid Action Battalion, rights activists yesterday called for an immediate halt to extrajudicial killings.
Human rights violations are bound to rise if any state security force is given impunity, they observed.
Concerned by continued human rights abuses by the Rab and other security forces, the European Parliament adopted the resolution on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Information Minister Hasanul Huq Inu yesterday said the government has no plan to formulate any law giving impunity to the Rab.
"The force [Rab] is operating as per law and its members have to face punishment under the law if they commit any misdeeds," he told reporters at Kushtia Medical College.
Talking to The Daily Star, Mufti
Mahmud Khan, director at the Rab's legal and media wing, said the force never asked for impunity, so there is no question of ending impunity to the Rab.
It was the Rab that started probing the seven-murder in Narayanganj and the force is still cooperating with the investigating officer of the case, he claimed.
"We also want punishment to those who were behind the Narayanganj incident irrespective of their ranks in the force," said Mahmud.
According to a study of rights body Ain O Salish Kendra (ASK), 1,002 people were killed in custody between 2004 and 2008. Citing newspaper reports, it said the number was 141 in 2008,115 in 2007,258 in 2006, 354 in 2005, and 134 in 2004.
As many as 229 people allegedly fell victim to forced disappearances between 2010 and 2013.
ASK reports indicate a rising trend in such disappearances in last five years. Forty-six people were made to disappear in 2010, 59 in 2011, 56 in 2012 and 68 in 2013, while 74 people were abducted allegedly by law enforcers in the first six months of this year.
Sultana Kamal, executive director of ASK, told this newspaper yesterday that any law enforcers including members of the Rab must be brought to justice if they are found involved in extrajudicial killings.
Sharing the European Parliament's concern about human rights violations by security forces, she said the appeal for not giving impunity to the law enforcers should be considered with due importance.
Rights groups, said Sultana, have been pointing out since 2004 that the Rab has taken many actions flouting its rules and regulations, for which it should be tried and punished.
"We protested when the question of giving impunity to law enforcers arose and they were given impunity. Therefore, we have moral support to the concern of European Parliament," she mentioned.
The rights activist also backed the European Parliament resolution calling on the government to immediately release anyone subjected to an enforced disappearance, unless he/she can be charged with a recognisable criminal offence.
Mizanur Rahman, chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, told Somoy Television that the Rab has to be made accountable. Their immunity can never be acceptable. It won't work.
Eminent jurist Shahdeen Malik said the resolution is a reminder that the whole world is now watching the Rab and all other law enforcement agencies "killingpeople randomly."
"If these killings are not stopped and the guilty goes unpunished, we will very soon turn into a lawless state like Afghanistan, Iraq and Egypt," he observed.
ZI Khan Panna, former chairman of legal aid and human rights committee of Bangladesh Bar Council, said it would be illegal if the law enforcers were given impunity from facing charges of extrajudicial killings.
"If any initiative is taken to give impunity to any law enforcement agency, it will be challenged in the proper court," he added.
Panna also said they challenged at the High Court the then government's action to legitimise the controversial criminal hunt operation called Operation Clean Heart. As many as 44 people died in custody and hundreds were injured during the drive from October 16,2002, to January 9,2003.
Following a writ petition filed by Panna, the HC on July 29, 2012, had issued a rule asking the government to explain why the Joint Drive Indemnity Act 2003 that legitimised Operation Clean Heart should not be declared unconstitutional.
The court also asked the authorities concerned to explain why they should not be directed to create a fund of Tk 100 crore to compensate victims of the operation.
The writ is still pending with the HC.