A UN human rights expert on Thursday accused Bangladeshi security forces of using murder as a means of law enforcement and warned that the country's reputation was on the line. "The government of Bangladesh must stop the Rapid Action Batallion and other elite security forces from using murder as a policing technique," the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions Philip Alston said in a statement.
Alston said in a report that his request for information on 27 deaths that authorities had attributed to "crossfire" in police shootouts had gone unanswered. "The pattern of incidents would suggest that what the police and special forces report as crossfire' deaths are in fact staged extrajudicial executions," the report added. Alston called the Bangladeshi government's "apparent indifference" to the allegations "deeply disturbing."
"The involvement of the police in extrajudicial executions is of great concern to the international community, and the reputation of Bangladesh is on the line," he warned. Alston, an Australian academic, underlined that the state of emergency could not justify any violations of the right to life.
President Iajuddin Ahmed imposed emergency rule in January and cancelled disputed elections scheduled that month. The new government, headed by former central bank governor Fakhruddin Ahmed, said earlier this month that it would set up a national human rights commission as soon as possible to deal with all rights issues. |