The Men in Black: RAB’s 20-yr-journey from extrajudicial killings to enforced disappearances

It was 14 April 2004, the Pahela Baishakh celebration of Bengali year 1411.

It was also the day the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) commenced operations in Bangladesh. 

Some 200 RAB members, sporting black shirts, trousers, sunglasses and black bandannas on their heads, were guarding different venues during the Pahela Baishakh in Dhaka.

That's how the elite force was introduced to the people. 

The full black uniform and sunglasses soon attracted widespread public attention. In 2006, the elite force even received Swadhinata Padak from the government.

Even the famous novelist Humayun Ahmed had joined in on the trend. His 2006 book, "Holud Himu Kalo RAB", was widely popular among readers. 

But amid all the attention and awards was an elite force that would soon get involved in all sorts of human rights violations, leading to widespread demand for its dissolution including a recent one from BNP, which was in power when RAB was formed. 

Back in 2004, many criticised the formation of RAB. In an editorial published on 23 July 2004, The Daily Star said that the government must "reign it in before it turns into a monster." 

And it was for obvious reasons. 

Formed under an amendment of the Armed Forces Battalion Ordinance 1979, RAB was provided blanket immunity under Section 13, stating, "No suit, prosecution or other legal proceedings shall be against any member of the Force for anything which is done or intended to be done in good faith under this Ordinance."

This vague and overly broad use of the term "good faith" means that cases of alleged violations can be easily dismissed, according to a Human Rights Watch (HRW) article published in 2021. 

The HRW article also argued that although RAB is tasked with civilian law enforcement duties, jurisdiction over the forces' offences under the ordinance is referred to an internal tribunal, similar to a court martial. 

The first controversies

On 15 July 2004, just three months after its formation, RAB arrested Sumon Ahmed Majumder, a 23-year-old garment trader and activist of Jubo League, the youth wing of the then-opposition party Awami League (AL). 

Sumon died just 10 hours after his capture, apparently from wounds sustained in custody, according to an HRW report. 

The 23-year-old Jubo League activist was a witness to the 7 May 2024 murder of Awami League parliamentarian and well-known trade union leader Ahsan Ullah Master. 

On 30 May 2005, RAB forces arrested three men in Dhaka, including Abul Kalam Azad Sumon, an accountant and an active member of the Chhatra League. He was taken to the RAB-3 headquarters. 

Azad's family found him dead in the back of a van at the local police station the next morning.

A year later, on 8 March 2006, RAB arrested Md Masudur Rahman (also known as Iman Ali), a businessman and local leader of the Jubo League. 

His body was found the next morning in a field near his home. It had bullet wounds and signs of torture, according to an HRW report. 

Era of crossfire

By 2009, it was well established that RAB was conducting severe human rights violations. "Crossfire" turned into a much-used word to explain the killings conducted by the "Men in Black".  

Among many others, 23-year-old Moshin Sheikh and 22-year-old Ali Jinnah, both students at Dhaka Polytechnic Institute, were killed by RAB on 28 May 2009. 

HRW documented some of these cases of crossfire in an article titled "Crossfire: Continued Human Rights Abuses by Bangladesh's Rapid Action Battalion" on 10 May 2011.

According to a DW report, RAB killed more than 700 people from 2009 to 2021. 

From extrajudicial killings to enforced disappearances

Enforced disappearances have made headlines throughout the 15 years of Sheikh Hasina's rule.

Bangladesh's interim government, which took charge after Hasina fled the country amid a mass uprising on 5 August, formed the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances on 27 August.

The commission found that the "goom culture" — or the culture of enforced disappearance — was systematically designed over the past 15 years to remain undetectable during the Awami League regime.

The name of the key security force that popped up in the commission's report was RAB. 

The interim report of the commission, submitted to Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus yesterday (14 December), also said security forces used to frequently operate in plain clothes and falsely attribute their actions to other agencies. "If DGFI were operating, they would claim to be RAB; if it were RAB, they would claim to be DB, etc."

It said the forces would also exchange victims amongst themselves, with one force abducting, another incarcerating, and the third one killing or releasing the victims.

Captured from Dhaka, resurfaced in India

Among the notable enforced disappearances is the disappearance of Salahuddin Ahmed, a BNP leader who fell victim to the act in March 2015. 

Captured while hiding at Uttara in 2015, he was transferred to Indian forces. 

The inquiry commission's report yesterday quoted Salahuddin as recounting his imprisonment in a barren cell where a hole in the ground served as a toilet.

The blanket provided to him bore the letters "TFI," which stands for "Task Force for Interrogation." 

"During that period, the only operational TFI centre that we know of was managed by RAB Intelligence Wing working under the aegis of RAB Headquarters, although it was located within a walled compound inside RAB 1 Battalion Headquarters at Uttara, Dhaka," read the report. 

Salahuddin described being transported to the India-Bangladesh border, where he was handed over to the officials on the Indian side. 

"The formal nature of the handover, combined with the presence of suspected Bangladeshi security personnel wearing "jom tupi" [a type of mask that covers the entire head] well inside Indian territory to avoid recognition, underscores the high level of coordination between the two governments and their respective security forces," read the report.

According to media reports from 2015, Salahuddin was found in Shillong, the capital of the north-eastern Indian state of Meghalaya, around two months after going missing from Dhaka. 

He was arrested for illegal trespassing into India and made accused in a case. 

Salahuddin was acquitted by a Shillong court in October 2018, but the Indian government appealed against the decision. On 28 February 2023, the Shillong judge court upheld his acquittal.

The BNP leader returned to Bangladesh on 11 August this year, six days after Hasina's ouster and nine years after going missing from the capital's Uttara. 

Yesterday's report by the inquiry commission on enforced disappearances also mentioned Shukhranjan Bali, who was abducted from Bangladesh Supreme Court premises and resurfaced in an Indian jail. 

Hummam Quader Chowdhury, another victim of enforced disappearance, described hearing Hindi-speaking people outside his cell inquiring about the condition of his captivity, such as: 'When was he picked up? Has he given any information? What interrogation has been done yet?' etc.

Interviews with soldiers deputed to RAB Intelligence have yielded further information about the practice of captive exchanges between the two countries and the possible subsequent fate of the detainees. One soldier described being present on two occasions circa 2011 when the RAB Intelligence Wing received three captives from India via the Tamabil border crossing in the presence of uniformed Border Security Force personnel of India, according to the report. 

The soldier quoted in the report said two captives were received and subsequently killed by the side of the road after the exchange on one occasion. 

On another occasion, one captive was received and handed over alive to another team inside Bangladesh.

In return, RAB Intelligence Wing handed over two captives from Bangladesh to India, the soldier was quoted saying. 

RAB, DB, and Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crimes (CTTC) have been identified by victims, witnesses, and family members as the primary perpetrators in most cases of enforced disappearances in Bangladesh during the Awami League regime, according to the commission's report.

Other actors also implicated in enforced disappearance cases include the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI) and the National Security Intelligence (NSI).