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Senators Ben Cardin, Corey Gardner, Jean Sheehan, Marco Rubio, Chris Murphy, Chris Kuns, Jeff Markle and Corey Booker, along with Democrat Bob Menendez and Republican Senator Todd Young, signed the letter.
However, the RAB has denied the allegations and said, as always, that they do everything in accordance with the law.
The letter, written by US senators to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Finance Minister Steven Manushen, said that there had been more than 400 “extrajudicial executions” against Bangladesh’s elite since 2015.
The senators’ letter called for sanctions to be imposed on top RAB officials under Section 6031 (c) of the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act and the FARD 2020 Consolidated Appropriations Act.
Those two sections of United States law provide for the confiscation of assets and the imposition of an entry ban into the United States.
The senators’ letter read: “After the government of Bangladesh declared a ‘war on drugs’ before the December 2016 elections,’ extrajudicial executions’ by the RAB increased.
“The war on drugs is emerging as a planned tactic for extrajudicial executions,” said a UN expert, including the Special Envoy for Extrajudicial Executions. And they ask the government to stop him and show respect for the rule of law and human rights. However, the government has not been able to stop these incidents and the RAB is carrying out extrajudicial executions with impunity ”.
Apart from the “extrajudicial executions”, the senators also expressed their concern about the involvement of the RAB in various incidents of “human rights violations”.
In the letter, they wrote: “In addition to the extrajudicial executions, UN experts, journalists and human rights groups have collected information on widespread disappearances and torture at the hands of the RAB.” There is also a charge of arresting and torturing three people in 2019, who had a dispute with their employer over a high-ranking government official.
“These events are evidence of serious human rights violations, for which neither the Rapid Action Battalion nor its superior officers have ever been sanctioned.”
However, Lt. Col. Ashiq Billah, the RAB’s director of media and law, denied the allegations, telling bdnews24.com: “The RAB is not involved in extrajudicial executions. The type of adverse incidents that occur are during the exchange of gunfire. between the expedition and the terrorist armed forces.
“The RAB always conducts operations in accordance with the law.”
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