Bangladesh protests US sanctions against RAB, security chiefs

Seven people, including Bangladesh’s national police chief, have been sanctioned by Biden’s administration over alleged rights abuses.

Bangladesh on Saturday called in the US ambassador to protest sanctions by Washington against its top security officers after seven people, including the country’s national police chief, were accused by the Biden administration of human rights abuses.

Washington imposed sanctions against the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), which is accused of involvement in hundreds of disappearances and nearly 600 extrajudicial killings since 2018.

Seven current or former officials of the Rapid Action Battalion were also sanctioned. They include Benazir Ahmed, previously the RAB chief and currently the national head of the South Asian country’s more than a 200,000-strong police force.

“We are determined to put human rights at the center of our foreign policy, and we reaffirm this commitment by using appropriate tools and authorities to draw attention to and promote accountability for human rights violations and abuses,” said Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Bangladesh officials were quick to denounce the move, with foreign secretary Masud Bin Momen summoning the US ambassador “to convey Dhaka’s discontent” over the decision, his ministry said.

He “regretted that the US decided to undermine an agency of the government that had been on the forefront of combating terrorism, drug trafficking and other heinous transnational crimes that were considered to be shared priorities with successive US administrations”, it added in a statement.

One of the sanctioned individuals, RAB deputy chief KM Azad, defended the force’s operations, saying it never violates human rights.

“If bringing down a criminal under the law is a violation of human rights, then we have no objection to violating this human rights in the interest of the country,” he said.

SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES