Human Rights in Bangladesh - Extrajudicial Killings

Extrajudicial Killings

After general elections in 2001 to the Jatiyo Sangshad(Bangladesh's Parliament), the right-wing Bangladesh Nationalist Party gained a majority, largely on the basis of their law and order and national security policies within Bangladesh. In 2003, the government established the Rapid Action Battalion, an elite 'anti-crime' unit composed of armed personnel from several of the existing security branches. Since the RAB was set up, it has been constantly alleged that extrajudicial killings and instances of custodial torture have surged.

Between January and October 2005, an estimated 300 'criminal' civilians died due to 'encounter' killings, at the hands of law enforcement agencies and the RAB. Human rights groups have recorded many of these killings, and have demanded that each death be investigated, but the government have refused to meet these requests. The government has defended RAB for having cut serious crime by fifty percent, and have, as of 2006, dismissed international condemnation of RAB——against whom the European Parliament have issued a strong resolution by saying that 'encounter killings' happen all over the world.

The government's tolerance towards human rights abuses is not a new phenomenon. Operation Clean Heart was an anti-crime operation that ran nationwide from October 2002 to January 2003. It led to the death of approximately sixty people, the maiming of around three thousand individuals, and the arrest of more than forty-five thousand. On the day that Operation Clean Heart officially ended, an ordinance was ratified that prohibited law-suits or prosecutions for human rights violations during that period, giving the armed forces and police impunity from being prosecuted for their actions.