Recent Appearances...

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Recent Appearances...

Bangladesh

Bangladesh extrajudicial killings fell dramatically in 2022, US report finds

2023-03-22

[BenarNews] Extrajudicial killings in Bangladesh fell to 25 or fewer in 2022 from as many as 80 the previous year, the U.S. State Department said Monday as it released its annual report on human rights
...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty...
across the globe.

The drop followed the U.S. Treasury Department imposing financial sanctions on Bangladesh’s elite Rapid Action Battalion

along with six current and former officers in December 2021 over what it identified as serious human rights abuses including extrajudicial killings.

The 2022 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices cited Bangladesh NGO Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK) in reporting that 19 people died from extrajudicial shootings or while in jug — including four from "so-called crossfires with law enforcement agencies and eight due to physical torture."

Another domestic human rights agency, which was not named, listed a higher number of alleged extrajudicial killings— 25 — during a period from January to September 2022.

By comparison, the 2021 State Department report stated that between 70 and 80 people were victims of alleged extrajudicial killings that year, citing ASK and another domestic rights group, Odhikar.

"Extrajudicial killings dramatically decreased from the previous year," the 2022 State Department report said.

ASK had previously alleged more than 600 such killings took place between May 2018 and June 2021.

The Bangladesh government in June 2022 refused to renew Odhikar’s license to operate, stating that it had "tarnished the image of the state to the world" and published "misleading" information on alleged extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances.

Odhikar was among local organizations documenting alleged human rights abuses by RAB members.

A March 2022 analysis by a Bangladeshi think tank, the Centre for Governance Studies, found that the Detective Branch of the Bangladesh police was involved in more than half of all extrajudicial killings between 2019 and 2021, far more than RAB.

The analysis also found that extrajudicial killings were far higher in Cox’s Bazar, in southeastern Bangladesh, than in the rest of the country, according to the State Department report.

US SANCTIONS
The U.S. government took action against RAB in December 2021.

"Widespread allegations of serious human rights abuse in Bangladesh by the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) ... threaten U.S. national security interests by undermining the rule of law and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, and the economic prosperity of the people of Bangladesh," the U.S. Treasury Department said in a statement.

Those sanctions, which have yet to be lifted, bar U.S. citizens from conducting business with or making contributions to the sanctioned individuals and block access to any property they hold in the United States.

While visiting Washington in June 2022, Md. Shahriar Alam, Bangladesh’s state minister for foreign affairs, spoke positively about the elite police unit.

"RAB has never been used to suppress the opposition. There is no record of any big shot or member of BNP or Jamaat being harassed by RAB or from being killed," he said at the time, referring to the opposition Bangladesh National Party and the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami
... a Pakistani catspaw remaining active in Bangla politix, loosely affiliated with the Pak religious party of the same name and closely affiliated with most of the terror organizations in Bangla. A member of the BNP's four party governing coalition....
, a faith-based political party.

Link

Bangladesh

US: Bangladesh’s RAB has made ‘tremendous progress’ in reducing extrajudicial killings

2023-01-18

[BenarNews] A senior U.S. official highlighted "tremendous progress" made by Bangladesh in reducing alleged extrajudicial killings by its elite RAB security force, which Washington had sanctioned in December 2021 over gross human rights
...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless...
abuses.

Donald Lu, the United States assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian Affairs, noted the progress as he wrapped a weekend visit to Bangladesh. Bilateral tensions arose in the wake of the U.S. sanctions on the Rapid Action Battalion

(RAB) and comments by the Biden administration, the same old faces in slightly different places, the same old ideas, the same old graft

Link

Bangladesh

In Bandarban operation, Bangladesh targets Muslim militant-hill tribe rebel link

2022-10-30

[BenarNews] Bangladeshi security forces have launched a crackdown on a nascent armed tribal group that, officials allege, helped train a budding Moslem Death Eater group in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, a restive southeastern region near the borders with Myanmar and India. The joint campaign by the Rapid Action Battalion

(RAB), an elite police unit, and the army has led to the arrests so far of at least 10 suspected members of the groups, since the operation began on Oct. 10 in one of the remotest areas in Bandarban, a district in the Hill Tracts region, authorities said.

The Kuki-Chin National Front (KNF), an armed hill tribe group, made headlines recently as they demanded an autonomous region for the indigenous Kuki people, many of whom now follow Christianity, in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT). The group’s members posed with weapons for social media posts and YouTube videos.

Officials say they have uncovered a strong link between the national front and what they assert is a newly formed Moslem Death Eater group, Jama’atul Ansar Fil Hindal Sharqiya (JAFHS).

Link

Bangladesh

New Bangladesh police chief is US-sanctioned former head of RAB

2022-10-01

[BenarNews] Bangladesh’s new police chief is a U.S.-sanctioned former head of the elite security unit Rapid Action Battalion

, which Washington also sanctioned last December saying it was responsible for serious human rights
...not to be confused with individual rights, mind you...
abuses.

Inspector General of Police Chowdhury Abdullah al-Mamun, took over the position on Friday, and was promoted by the government after serving as director general of the Rapid Action Battalion, or RAB.
So he's already trained
He was one of seven then-current or former RAB officials who were placed under American sanctions along with the unit in December 2021 by the U.S. Treasury Department for alleged human rights violations, including enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, cases of torture and other abuses.

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal defended Abdullah when BenarNews asked him about the wisdom of appointing a U.S.-sanctioned officer as national police chief.

"Sanctioning Chowdhury Abdullah al-Mamun is not a fair decision," the minister told BenarNews.

"He has been facing sanctions only for holding the office of director general of RAB.

He has been an honest, industrious and a man of principle. He is the senior most police official, and retires in four months," he added.

The U.S. Treasury Department sanctions bar U.S. citizens from conducting business with or making contributions to the sanctioned individuals and block access to any property they hold in the United States.

Abdullah’s immediate predecessor as police chief, Benazir Ahmed, was also sanctioned by Washington last year because of his association with RAB. He was a former RAB director general.

The United States accused RAB of more than 600 enforced disappearances in the past 12 years, a similar number of extrajudicial killings, and the use of torture.

"Widespread allegations of serious human rights abuse in Bangladesh by the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) ... threaten U.S. national security interests by undermining the rule of law and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, and the economic prosperity of the people of Bangladesh," the U.S. Treasury Department said in a statement when it announced the sanctions.

RAB was founded in 2004, and charged with internal security, intelligence gathering related to criminal activities, and government-directed investigations, according to the U.S. treasury.

Link

Bangladesh

Bangladesh official challenges US sanctions against elite police unit

2022-06-05

[BenarNews] Bangladesh’s elite police force, the Rapid Action Battalion

, has operated effectively despite U.S. sanctions in December 2021 over alleged human rights
One man's rights are another man's existential threat.
violations, Dhaka’s state minister for foreign affairs told BenarNews in an interview in Washington.

Md. Shahriar Alam was in the U.S. capital this week as part of a delegation meeting with American officials for the Second High-Level Economic Consultation between the two nations.

Link

Bangladesh

Suspended Juba League leader Samrat freed on bail

2022-05-12

[NEWAGEBD] The jail authorities on Wednesday freed suspended Juba League leader Ismail Hossain Chowdhury Samrat on bail as he was granted bails in all four cases filed against him.

Samrat is facing charges relating to money laundering, illegal casino business, illegal bars, and possession of illegal arms, after the Rapid Action Battalion

arrested him on October 6, 2019 during the drive against illegal casino business and illegal bars.

’After receiving a copy of his bail order granted by a Dhaka court on Wednesday morning in the corruption case, we have withdrawn jail’s wardens from the Coronary Care Unit of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Hospital at 4:30pm where Samrat was undergoing treatment,’ Dhaka Central Jail’s senior superintendent Suvas Ghosh told New Age.

BSMMU director (hospital) Brigadier General Nazrul Islam Khan, however, told New Age that the medical board, which was monitoring Samrat’s health, would take decision today whether he should be released from the hospital.

’His health condition is not good,’ he added.

Link

Bangladesh

Bangladesh PM criticizes US sanctions on elite police unit

2022-03-29

For your viewing pleasure, dear Reader, the last (earliest) of the Related keyword RAB articles at the bottom of the post is a proper Crossfire. Enjoy!

[BenarNews] In her first public comment on the issue, Bangladesh’s prime minister lashed out Monday at the U.S. for "abominable" sanctions against the Rapid Action Battalion

force over alleged human rights
...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty...
abuses, saying Washington imposed them without "any fault or cause."

~~the loathesome~~ Sheikh Hasina

Link

Bangladesh

Rights Groups Urge UN Ban on Peacekeeping by Bangladesh’s ‘Abusive’ RAB Unit

2022-01-23

Because the RAB was mentioned the other day.

[BenarNews] A dozen international human rights
One man's rights are another man's existential threat.
groups, in a letter made public Thursday, called on the United Nations
...a formerly good idea gone bad...
to ban Bangladesh’s Rapid Action Battalion

from U.N. peacekeeping operations, citing allegations that it commits torture, enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings.

Link

Bangladesh

United States Sanctions Bangladesh’s RAB for ‘Serious Human Rights Abuse’

2021-12-12

Oh dear. It looks like someone has been reading Tales From The Crossfire Gazette, and missed the point completely.

[BenarNews] The United States on Friday imposed financial sanctions on the notorious Bangladeshi police unit RAB and six of its current and former officers, saying they were responsible for serious human rights
...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless...
abuses.

In addition, Benazir Ahmed, a former director general of the force, was barred from entering the United States "due to his involvement in gross violations of human rights."

Washington announced the move on International Human Rights Day, unveiling sanctions against "15 individuals and 10 entities" around the globe.

"Widespread allegations of serious human rights abuse in Bangladesh by the Rapid Action Battalion

(RAB) ... threaten U.S. national security interests by undermining the rule of law and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, and the economic prosperity of the people of Bangladesh," the U.S. Treasury Department said in a statement.

The force, which comprises members of the police, army, navy, air force, and border guard, is accused of more than 600 enforced disappearances in the past 12 years, a similar number of extrajudicial killings, and use of torture, the statement noted.

RAB was founded in 2004, and charged with internal security, intelligence gathering related to criminal activities, and government-directed investigations, according to the U.S. treasury.

In Dhaka, prior to the announcement, about 100 relatives of disappeared people marked International Human Rights Day with a protest outside the National Press Club with tears and chants of "Give them back!"

On Thursday, Human Rights Watch had lodged its strongest call yet for action against RAB, saying that U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres should immediately ban RAB officers from participating in United Nations
...an organization conceived in the belief that we're just one big happy world, with the sort of results you'd expect from such nonsense...
peacekeeping missions. HRW also called on the world body to ramp up screening of those officers deployed under its blue-and-white flag to ensure that its human rights screening policy was being effectively applied in Bangladesh.

"Nobody believes the Bangladesh government’s lies about enforced disappearances by its security forces," said Brad Adams. Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "The question now is what donors and the U.N. are going to do about it."

The six officers named by the Treasury Department are Chowdhury Abdullah al-Mamun, the current director general of RAB; Benazir Ahmed, its former director general; Khan Mohammad Azad, an additional director general of the force; and Tofayel Mustafa Sorwar, Mohammad Jahangir Alam, and Mohammad Anwar Latif Khan, all former additional director generals at RAB.

The U.S. Treasury Department sanctions bar U.S. citizens from conducting business with or making contributions to the sanctioned individuals and block access to any property they hold in the United States.

PANTHEON
Meanwhile,
...back at the buffalo wallow, Standing Buffalo watched the circling Commanches and asked himself What would Geronimo do?...
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken named two Bangladeshis on a list of 12 foreign government officials barred from entering the United States.

He cited a 2021 U.S. law enabling the move against individuals and their immediate family members when "there is credible information that officials of foreign governments have been involved in a gross violation of human rights or significant corruption."

The statement named Benazir Ahmed — the former RAB director-general who is currently Bangladesh’s police chief — and Miftah Uddin Ahmed, a current lieutenant colonel and former commanding officer of RAB Unit 7, for the May 2018 killing of Teknaf City Municipal Councilor Ekramul Haque in Cox’s Bazar, in southeastern Bangladesh.

"We are determined to put human rights at the center of our foreign policy, and we reaffirm this commitment by using appropriate tools and authorities to draw attention to and promote accountability for human rights violations and abuses, no matter where they occur," Blinken said.

The U.S. moves placed RAB in a pantheon of the worst rights abusers in the world, including those involved in the racial profiling and mass detention of ethnic Uyghurs in China, the slaughter of civilians in post-coup Myanmar, and the exploitation of North Korea

...hereditary Communist monarchy distinguished by its truculence and periodic acts of violence. Distinguishing features include Songun (Army First) policy, which involves feeding the army before anyone but the Dear Leadership, and Juche, which is Kim Jong Il's personal interpretation of Marxism-Leninism, which he told everybody was brilliant. In 1950 the industrialized North invaded agrarian South Korea. Twenty-one countries of the United Nations eventually contributed to the UN force opposing the invasion, with the United States providing around 90% of the military personnel. Seventy years later the economic results are in and it doesn't look good for Juche...
n workers abroad.

BenarNews tried to contact RAB authorities for a response to the U.S. sanctions, but phone calls and messages were not answered.

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal rejected the U.S. sanctions, saying they were "in no way justified."

"The basis on which the action has been taken does not reflect the ground reality," Khan told BenarNews Friday night.

"Ours is a country of 170 million people. Policing here is not as easy as in other countries. The police officials in Bangladesh discharge their duties with much patience," he said.

"While discharging their duties, they must confront many security situations; sometimes they are forced to fire for self-defense. They are entitled to defend themselves," Khan said, referring to allegations of extrajudicial killings.

"In case any members of the law enforcement agencies are found to have violated laws, we punish them accordingly," he added.

In August, while responding to a Human Rights Watch report on enforced disappearances, Foreign Minister A.K. Abdul Momen said they were "fabricated."

"Some people dissociate themselves from their families and then they come back home after some days," he told BenarNews. He said incidents of killings and disappearances happened everywhere.

"When people were killed in America by law enforcement agencies they called it in the line of duty, but when it happens in our cyopeople[journalists] call it extrajudicial killing," he said. "This mentality has to be changed."

’NATIONAL SHAME’
Activist Sanjida Islam, whose group "Mother is Calling" (Mayer Daak) represents relatives of disappeared people, welcomed news of the U.S. sanctions.

Her brother, Sajedul Islam Sumon — a leader of the opposition Bangladesh National Party (BNP) — went missing in December 2013 after RAB officers whisked him away from a residential neighborhood in Dhaka, she said. He has not been seen since.

"We are glad. This is the first time the state law enforcement agency RAB comes under question from anyone. No domestic institution could [raise] any question about their unlawful activities in Bangladesh," Islam told BenarNews.

"The family members of the victims of enforced disappearances have gone to every institution of Bangladesh to get their sons or brothers back, but in vain," she said.

Nur Khan Liton, a human rights activist and former executive director of the rights advocacy NGO Ain o Salish Kendra, said the U.S. action against RAB was correct.

"We, the human rights activists in Bangladesh, have been clamoring for years that the law enforcement agencies such as RAB have been carrying out extrajudicial killings in the pretext of ’crossfire’ and are responsible for enforced disappearances," he told BenarNews.

"But the state did not heed our concerns. They did not attach importance to our observations. The state repeatedly shrugged off the responsibility for the gross human rights violations," he said.

"I think this is a matter of national shame when we see a foreign country adopts a resolution of sanction on a state agency of Bangladesh for the violation of human rights," Khan said.

"The sanction would not have come had they taken our concerns and observations seriously."

Link

Bangladesh

Tales from the RAB Gazette: Youth held with AK-47, LG in Chittagong

2021-11-12

[DhakaTribune] RAB-7 conducted raid on a tip-off

Number 7 must be one of the early ones, unless they reorganized on some other basis after they headed toward the 30s...

Members of Rapid Action Battalion

(RAB) have arrested a youth with sophisticated weapons and ammunition

...no shutter gun and rounds of bullet for him, darn it!

from a rubber garden

... not sure what that is, but it sounds almost as suitably plebeian as a brickyard or a banana plantation...

in Raozan area of Chittagong.

The youth was identified as Syed Hossain alias Faruk, 30, son of Mohammad Belal Hossain Faruk,

...how far the family has fallen — from four names to two in a single generation...

of Charabattal area under Rangunia cop shoppe.

That can be found on the 1:2 map hidden in the false wall behind the final row of boxes in the dead file archive in the third Rangunia cop shoppe subbasement. Unfortunately, there is nowhere big enough to unfold it to see...

He was arrested during a raid conducted around 11pm on Sunday

...late enough for the good citizens of Chittagong to be in bed, though early for the miscreants..

on a tip-off,

*Ring, ring* “Mahmoud the Weasel’s fourth nephew twice removed here. Listen carefully — I will say this only once...”

RAB-7 Senior Assistant Director (Media)

Good lord — the RAB have gotten awfully professional and organized since the early days when the newest patrolman got to write up their adventures when done polishing the shutter gun and round of bullet before returning it to its lighted display shelf in the evidence locker, ready for when next called upon...

Mohammad Nurul Abshar confirmed to Dhaka Tribune on Monday.

At that time, an AK-47 rifle, one LG

...long gun?

Or 4K OLED TV?
and eight rounds of ammunition were recovered from him.

”Here — Farouk, right? Give me those before you hurt yourself!”

He tried to escape sensing the presence of the elite crime busters.

“...Spidey sense tingling... Must. Run. Away.”
*Trip* “Ow!”
“Got him, Sarge. There’s no escaping the RAB, young Farouk. We always get our miscreant, even those wanted in twelve systems and loved only by their mothers.”

The arrestee has been handed over to Raozan police.

I think I need to move to Bangladesh. I had no idea arrestee was a real word.

Link

India-Pakistan

2 JeM terrorists, 4 of their associates held in J&K

2021-02-03

[OneIndia] Two newly recruited bully boyz and four terrorist associates of Jaish-e-Mohammad
...literally Army of Mohammad, a Pak-based Deobandi terror group founded by Maulana Masood Azhar in 2000, after he split with the Harkat-ul-Mujaheddin. In 2002 the government of Pervez Musharraf banned the group, which changed its name to Khaddam ul-Islam and continued doing what it had been doing before without missing a beat...
(JeM) and its offshoot Lashkar-e-Mustafa (LeM) were arrested in Jammu and Kashmir
Kashmir

...a disputed territory lying between India and Pakistain. After partition, the Paks grabbed half of it and call it Azad (Free) Kashmir. The remainder they refer to as "Indian Occupied Kashmir". They have fought four wars with India over it, the score currently 4-0 in New Delhi's favor. After 72 years of this nonsense, India cut the Gordian knot in 2019, removing the area's special status, breaking off Ladakh as a separate state, and allowing people from other areas to settle (or in the case of the Pandits, to resettle) there....
on Saturday, police said.

Acting on specific inputs regarding terrorist attacks being planned in Anantnag and Bijbehara towns by the LeM, the police along with the Army established special checking points at multiple locations and conducted intensive checking, a police spokesperson said.

At one of the checkpoints at Donipora in Bijbehera, officers intercepted a car with two persons onboard. The two tried to flee but were apprehended tactfully by the alert forces, he said.

For a given value of tactful that possibly involved bamboo staves connecting hardly with their persons...

"They have been identified as Imran Ahmed Hajam, a resident of Nathpora Khanabal, and Irfan Ahmed Ahanger, a resident of Nandpora Khanabal. Both had recently joined terrorist ranks and were affiliated with proscribed terror outfit LeM/JeM," the spokesperson said.

It is the job of Red Shirts and cannon fodder to get caught. This is understood. After all, it is only by repeatedly not getting caught that one graduates to an actual number in the organization, on the path to emir with two henchmen on the operations side or Number 4 with a colour blind trainee guaranteed to confuse the red and green wires for those on the technical path.

Incriminating material, arms and ammunition including two pistols, three magazines and 116 rounds were recovered from their possession, he said.

Alternately, a stint in prison, being tutored by more advanced peers, has been known to advance the survivor’s career by several steps up the ladder.

The spokesperson said during the questioning, the arrested persons revealed that the LeM was recently floated to give an impression that terrorism in Kashmir is home-grown and not sponsored by Pakistain.

”Such a clever idea, Mr. General Effendi, sir! Those stupid hinjoos in IOK will never catch on that it’s a ruse — and we have the perfect patsy ready to name himself the Number 1!”

"They further revealed that they are close associates of Hidayat Malik alias Hasnain, a resident of Sharafpora Shopian and the self-styled chief of LeM;

...he looks the perfect villain: black cape and shiny top hat, twirly mustaches, and laughs menacingly at every opportunity. Oh, and an IQ of 15...

Umer alias Wahid Khan, a resident of Shopian; and Aftab alias Ali Bhai, a resident of Dachipora.

...ordinary henchmen (3rd class), those two, to set the proper tone...

"They said they were conducting recce of the area to plant an IED in order to target security forces and the police," he said.

...any number of Xs, but only one will be the final Spot...

During the course of investigation, four terrorist associates of JeM were arrested from different locations, the spokesperson said.

It’s India. They haven't yet mastered vanishing as if they’d never been there at all. In Bangladesh the Rapid Action Battalions have acted to speed the evolution of even common miscreants.

They have been identified as Bilal Ahmed Kumar, Tawfeeq Ahmed Lawey, Muzamil Ahmed Wani and Aadil Ahmed Rather.

All three-namers, which in Bangladesh would make them solidly middle class. But as this is India, it probably just means their mothers had ideas above their station.

Incriminating material, ammunition including two grenades, 30 AK-47 rounds and 1 kg of kaboom were recovered from their possession, he said.

Not a single round of bullet, shined lovingly by the newest police recruit and kept in its velvet case in the evidence lockup between being sent to various Spots to be found by gruff Sgt. Iqbal and his merry men, no shutter gun, no crossfire deaths, but actual weapons that can be bought on the illegal black market? In this, at least, the Indians are more sophisticated.

Link

Bangladesh

Police arrest six over Manikganj murder, killers posed as RAB

2020-08-17

[Dhaka Tribune] Police have arrested six people over the murder of a readymade garment (RMG) trader in Manikganj in mid-July.

The suspects were identified as Farhad Hossain, Jalal Uddin Sumon, Kazi Akbar Ali, Saharul Islam, Aminul Islam and Monir.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Detective Branch (DB) Gulshan division arrested the suspects between August 6 and Saturday night. They also seized two jackets with Rapid Action Battalion

(RAB) logos, handcuffs, walkie-talkies, an ambulance, a pistol and bullets.

RMG trader Sultan Hossain lived in a flat at Nakhalpara, Dhaka and his body was found hidden in a bush on July 16. The trader’s brother filed a case with Singair cop shoppe two days later.

Moshiur Rahman, deputy commissioner of DB Gulshan division, said the members of the gang would observe transactions at the banking area in Motijheel and target people who made large withdrawals.

They targeted Sultan in Motijheel on July 14 and followed him with a rented ambulance, as they had information that he had withdrawn a large amount in foreign currency.

The gang kidnapped Sultan from the Pallabi area of Mirpur by posing as members of RAB. They then took him into the ambulance and searched him for the foreign currency but did not find anything.

At one stage, Sultan began shouting for help and the abductors suffocated him inside the ambulance, according to the deputy commissioner.

After conducting a shadow investigation, DB arrested Farhad from Sakhipur, Shariatpur on August 6. Farhad confessed to the murder and detectives raided Dhaka Medical College Hospital and Paltan based on the information he provided, leading to the other arrests.

Link

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