With a view to ending the culture of impunity of RAB members, the Human Rights Watch has called on the Bangladeshi government to launch an independent investigation into the 2011 shooting on Limon Hossain.
The New York-based rights body also reiterated its demand to disband the elite force, Rapid Action Battalion, which is blamed for “hundreds of extrajudicial killings and other serious human rights violations.”
In a statement yesterday, the HRW mentioned that then RAB chief and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina after the incident said Limon had been an accidental victim of a shootout between RAB and criminal gangs, and that the teenager had no involvement in criminal activities.
Hasina also ordered an investigation into the RAB officers involved in the incident. However, the government “withdrew the statement was withdrawn within four hours, without any clarification.”
Later, the police took no action against his attackers and instead filed two cases stating several criminal charges against Limon “in an attempt to shelter RAB from accountability.”
Following a Home Ministry order of July 9 last year, a Jhalakathi court withdrew charges against Limon in one case the same month, and in the other case last week.
On March 23, 2011, Limon was shot in the leg at “point-blank range” allegedly by the elite force personnel near his house in Jhalakathi. Four days later, Limon’s leg was amputated to save his life. For medical reasons he was not able to return home for more than six months.
“It is good that Bangladeshi authorities have finally dropped the spurious charges against Limon, but he never should have been charged in the first place,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at the HRW.
The HRW also condemned the police report submitted in the case filed by Limon’s mother that said no evidence of RAB’s involvement had been found in Limon’s shooting.
It urged the authorities to break the cycle of impunity by successfully prosecuting those RAB officers responsible for the seven murders in Narayanganj.
Since its establishment in 2004, successive governments have “allowed the force to operate with impunity, leading to serious and systematic abuses,” the HRW says.
In opposition, the Awami League had called for the disbandment of RAB and for the prosecution of those responsible for “crossfire” and other killings. “But it has failed to take serious action despite hundreds of killings since it came to power.”
Urging the government to dissolve RAB, Adams said: “RAB is a death squad that cannot be reformed.”