Highly placed sources in the Home Ministry said yesterday that the team would watch the activities of the RAB members and would also check the source of their assets and income.
| Setting up a Internal Affairs division, some of the boys have been naughty |
Some recent criminal incidents involving the RAB members pose a threat to the credibility of the RAB which had earned fame among the people for their efficiency as well as for honesty. The situation aggravated as some more allegations against the RAB members were submitted to the Ministry recently. "And such things are rising alarmingly," said a concerned official adding that the Home Ministry was adamant to stop all these immediately. It may be mentioned that recently in Dhaka, Chuadanga, Fatulla, and B'Baria RAB members were caught red handed while engaged in illegal activities.
In Chuadanga, the two members of RAB were caught red handed while attempting to take bribe amounting to Tk two lakh, in Fatulla RAB members were reportedly involved in helping land grabbers, and lastly in the capital on Wednesday, two RAB members were caught red handed while attempting to snatch Taka two lakh from a cattle trader. All these incidents were so embarrassing for the government that an immediate remedy to this was considered urgent and that is why the concerned authority decided to form the counter intelligence team, sources said. Launched on March 21 last year the RAB comprises the members of Army, Air Force, Navy, Police and Ansar. But already nearly 100 personnel of the battalion had been punished by the authority for their involvement in different illegal activities.
Agencies adds: Embarrassed after a RAB man was caught with looted money on Wednesday, the government yesterday decided to punish those responsible for tarnishing the image of the elite force, Minister of State for Home Lutfuzzaman Babar said. The incident created an embarrassing situation for the government and the elite force, he said adding that if necessary, summary court would be formed as in other regular forces to ensure punishment to the culprits showing "zero tolerance". The trial would be held to uphold the image of RAB which, otherwise, is adding feathers to its cap with its performance against the criminals since its formation last year, Babar told reporters emerging from an unscheduled two and a half hours of close-door meeting held at Kurmitola RAB Headquarters here yesterday afternoon.
Inspector General of Police Ashraful Huda and all commanding officers of the elite force battalion, including Director General of RAB Mohammad Anwarul Iqbal attended the meeting. The looting incident came to light after RAB members sergeant Atiqur Rahman and sergeant Waliullah of the Air Force, who were on leave when the incident happened, were caught red- handed by local people while they were fleeing after looting Taka 7.8 lakh from a house of a cattle trader in city's Mirpur on Wednesday morning. Soon after the incident, RAB conducted separate drives and recovered Taka 2.5 lakh, sources said. But Atiq, denied his involvement in the robbery saying that he was just passing by the place at the time of the incident and became a victim.
In reply to a question, the State Minister said the meeting decided to amend the existing rules of the elite force to ensure speedy punishment of the elite members who are breaking discipline. He said a total of 107 RAB personnel were awarded different punitive actions, including dismissal form service and rigorous imprisonment, for breaking discipline. Describing the existing rules of the force, Babar said if any RAB member was found guilty he would be given life imprisonment. Terming the creation of RAB a historic decision of the present government when the country's progress was being obstructed by a section of criminals, Babar said adding "the government would not tolerate such incidents". He said the core responsibility of RAB is to swing into action against planned and organized terrorism to ensure peace and security in society, and added that three new battalions would join the force soon.
RAB arrested 3,234 people, including four top terrors, and recovered 752 firearms along with thousands of bullets of different descriptions from across the country till March 22 this year. RAB comprises men from six forces—Army, Navy, BDR, Police, Ansar and Air Force. It came to exposure before the people with the participation in last year's Independence Day parade on March 26. RAB started its full-fledged operation on June 21 last year providing security to the Ramna Batamul on the first day of "Baishakh."
The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) itself, and not the police - will investigate last Wednesday's robbery incident in which RAB members were involved.
Commander Saber Sharif, Commanding Officer (CO) of RAB-4 Thursday said the home ministry has directed RAB to take the charge of investigation itself instead of giving it to police.
| From what I've read, the regular cops are worse than the RAB having been involved in criminal actions and terrorist activities themselves. That's one of the reasons the RAB came into being, kind of like Elliot Ness's "Untouchables" in Chicago. |
"Sergeant Atiq and Sergeant Oli of BAF, and ASI Rafiq and Constable Khorshed of police, and two local criminals - Masud and Babul - committed the robbery," Commander Saber Sharif said adding: We so far netted Sergeants Atiq and Oli, and constable, Khorshed and Babul." "Nine teams of RAB are conducting massive drives in and around the capital to net the remaining criminals," CO of RAB-4 said adding "A team of RAB raided ASI Rafiq's village home in Netrokona but did not find him."
Commander Saber also said that they filed a GD with local police station in Netrokona. Besides, the arrested people were taken on five-day remand yesterday for interrogation. RAB assured the victim of recovering his looted money. They so far recovered Tk 258,500 from the criminals.