Rapid Action Battalion is going to observe its 12th founding anniversary today.
On this day in 2004, the elite force officially began its journey by participating in the Independence Day parade.
At the time, the force consisted of officials of police, army, navy, air force, then Bangladesh Rifles (now Border Guard Bangladesh), coast guard, Ansar and the civil service.
President Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina issued separate messages marking the day.
The programme of the founding day, which RAB calls the Rising Day, will start with the hoisting of the national flag by Benazir Ahmed, director general of the force, at the force’s headquarters in the capital’s Uttara.
On the occasion, family members of the deceased RAB members would be accorded reception.
RAB started operation with 5,521 members in seven battalions and the number increased over time. At present, there are some 8,500 members in 14 battalions.
Over the last 12 years, RAB has been hailed for its role to arrest criminals, recover illegal arms and to carry out anti-corruption operations. But it was lambasted for the 2014 seven murders in Narayanganj and the extrajudicial killings.
According to official statistics, RAB has so far made a total of 166,670 arrests – including terrorists and militants. Of them, 1,771 were members of Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) and Harkat-ul Jihad-al Islami (Huji).
The force has detained 8,706 armed criminals and recovered 334 anti-tank explosives, 12,460 arms of different categories, 181,225 rounds, 18,389 crude bombs and grenades, and 5,460kg explosive materials.
RAB’s very first incident of crossfire led to the death of Pichchi Hannan, a top criminal in the capital, on June 1, 2004. Since then, for similar incidents, it had been slammed by human rights groups.
According to RAB, 54 criminals were killed during shootouts in 2004. The number was 106 in 2005, 109 in 2006, 81 in 2007, 63 in 2008, 38 in 2009, 42 in 2010, 23 in 2011, 45 in 2012, 35 in 2013, 22 in 2014, 28 in 2015 and 14 since the beginning of 2016.
RAB claimed that those killed in gunfights were members of militant groups or were associated with top criminals.
Commander Mufti Mahmud Khan, media wing director of RAB, said the force would always be alert to fight terrorism in the country.