BANGLADESH: An alleged killing of a young man by the Rapid Action Battalion in Jessore after his arbitrary arrest and torture

Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is gravely concerned by another alleged extra-judicial killing committed by the members of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB)-6 in Jessore district on 20 November 2006. We were informed that a 25-year-old Mr. Khademul Islam Masum was arbitrarily arrested by the RAB-6 personnel near his house in Shekhhati village and brutally tortured in front of his family members and neighbours. His dead body was then found in the morgue of the Jessore General Hospital in the early morning of the following day. The victim’s father lodged a petition case with the court in December 2006 but the police authority is allegedly intimidating the victim’s family not to pursue any legal action against the said RAB members. The family were also allegedly offered a money by the police officers who asked them not to file the case. As the government authorities have not taken any action against the alleged perpetrators, the victim’s family is living in fear for their security.

CASE DETAILS:

At around 9:00pm on 20 November 2006, Mr. Md. Shafikul Islam along with his third son Mr. Md. Khademul Islam Masum was returning home from his fabric shop “Mitul Fashion” located at Shekhhati Jamrultala Bazar. Masum went ahead leaving his father behind and came to the street adjacent to their home. When Mr. Shafikul had almost reached the house, he heard some noise outside the house. He and his wife Mrs. Feroza Islam Nargis rushed to the scene and saw that their son Masum was held by a team of eight persons wearing black shirts, pants and sleeveless black jackets with hockey sticks and shotguns.

The armed men identified themselves as members of the Rapid Action Battalion Jessore unit under the RAB-6 of Khulna division. When Mr. Shafikul asked them the reason for his son’s arrest, the RAB personnel responded with abusive language and threatened to shoot Mr. Shafikul and his family members. Masum was then handcuffed by one RAB member and all the RAB men began to brutally assault him with hockey sticks in front of his parents.

While beating Masum, one bearded RAB member talked to a person on his mobile phone. After finishing the phone conversation, Masum’s parents heard the RAB member tell his fellow officers that Mr. Major Shahin, the Commanding Officer of the RAB-6 unit, ordered them not to free Masum without his permission. The brutal assault on Masum continued until 10:20pm. Meanwhile the same bearded RAB received another call and the victim’s parents heard him inform the caller that the right person has been arrested and until his (Masum’s) last breath he would not be released. Masum finally lost consciousness and fell on the street due to the severe assault by RAB members.

The RAB personnel then made a phone call to someone and soon after two RAB personnel arrived in a scene in a white coloured mini van. They then put the unconscious Masum into the mini van and left toward Jessore city. Masum’s family went to the Kotwali police station as well as the RAB office in Jessore all night to look for him but failed to trace him.

On the following morning of November 21 at about 6:00am, one Mr. Shafikul’s neighbours informed him that he had found Masum’s dead body at the morgue of the Jessore General Hospital. Masum’s family rushed to the hospital and learned from the hospital authority that the RAB personnel had brought Masum, who was already dead at that time, to the hospital. Interestingly, the hospital authority immediately arranged a post-mortem on Masum’s body without informing his family and conducted it at around 4:30am. This is unusual practice in Bangladesh.

After Masum’s death, the RAB Jessore unit lodged a motorbike snatching case (No. 69) against Masum with the Kotwali police station; the case was registered as a First Information Report by the police at around 11:25am on November 21.

According to Masum’s father Mr. Shafikul, on November 30, the Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) of Jessore district Mr. Motiur Rahman accompanied by the Acting Editor of the Weekly Haque Pratibad, a Jessore based newspaper, Mr. Mohidul Islam Montu, came to his house and returned Masum’s mobile phone that was snatched by the RAB personnel during his arrest. The ASP aso assured that he would request the RAB authority to return Masum’s money snatched by the RAB at the time of Masum’s arrest. The ASP also told the father not to file a case against the RAB personnel regarding his son’s murder. He also allegedly threatened the father saying that lodging any case against the RAB personnel would only cause various problems to his family. He further suggested the father that the RAB are willing to give 300,000 Bangladeshi Taka (USD 4,410) as compensation for his son’s death.

Mr. Shafikul also reported that the Jessore General Hospital authority did not inform him regarding the arrival of his son’s body at the hospital and he has not received any information about the inquest report and the post-mortem report from any authorities including the hospital authority. The father also said that the Kotwali police refused to lodge a murder case against the said RAB personnel regarding his son’s torture and murder.

On December 4, Mr. Shafikul lodged a petition case with the Magistrate’s Cognizance Court of Jessore against 10 persons of the RAB Jessore unit, including the Commanding Officer Major Mr. Shahin, under section 302 and 34 of the Penal Code (Case no. 1793/06). The Magistrate then directed the Officer-in-Charge (OC) of the Kotwali police station to take necessary action.

There is an unproved allegation that Masum assisted a criminal group to snatch a motorbike belonging to a RAB person’s relative and the RAB team arrested Masum after failing to arrest the original criminals.

It is reported that two more persons namely Mr. Biddut and Mr. Uzzal, inhabitants of Ghop Nawapara Road of the Jessore town, were also arrested with the suspicion of being involved in the said theft of the motorbike. They were also beaten by the RAB personnel and allegedly taken to an isolated field at Kalitala, about three kilometers from the Jessore town toward the North-East past midnight (around 1:00am) on November 21. That area is well known to local people as the place where extrajudicial killings occur on the pretext of so-called “crossfire” incidents.

At the last moment when Biddut and Uzzal were about to be shot, Uzzal cried out begging for his life, and asserted that both of them were not involved in the bike theft. Uzzal and Biddut also told the RAB team that one Mr. Abbas, who is mostly known as Kukure (dog) Abbas or Kaura (nasty) Abbas, was directly involved in the theft. The RAB team then halted the preplanned “crossfire” killing and dropped them in front of the Jessore General Hospital at around 3:00 am.

Biddut and Uzzal allege that the RAB team dropped Masum’s body at the hospital at that time and asked the clinicians to complete the post-mortem before sunrise. This instruction was complied with by the concerned medical authority in an unprecedented way. In reality, medical doctors are not available at all for conducting autopsy at this unusual time. Even the Dome, who dissects the dead body, is supposedly a sleep at that time. Therefore, the request of the RAB officers is intended to remove evidence of all injuries before the media and Masum’s family see Masum’s body.

Meanwhile, Masum’s family as well as Uzzal and Biddut’s families are facing continuous and severe threats and intimidation from the RAB and the police not to disclose the incident. The families are currently living in tremendous fear for their security.

ADDITIONAL COMMENT:

The AHRC is gravely concerned by the continuing and widespread “crossfire killing” committed by the RAB forces, and the failure of the Bangladesh government to prohibit them. The RAB personnel have escaped from being challenged by law despite the murders of hundreds of innocent civilians in the name of terrorism and so called “crossfire” in the last two years after its establishment. In particular, the Rapid Action Battalion in Jessore is notorious for such killings.

If you would like to learn more about the atrocities of the RAB and other law enforcement officials in Bangladesh, including extra-judicial killings on the pretext of crossfire, please also refer to a Special report: Lawless law-enforcement and the parody of judiciary in Bangladesh (article 2, vol. 5, no. 4, August 2006) published by the Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC),  a sister organization of the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC).

Please also refer to the most recent cases reported by the AHRC regarding the brutality of the RAB forces:

UA-407-2006: BANGLADESH: Alleged public extrajudicial killing of a student league activist by the Rapid Action Battalion on the pretext of crossfire
UA-404-2006: BANGLADESH: Three persons including twin brothers arbitrarily arrested and tortured by Rapid Action Battalion and the Keraniganj police in Dhaka
UA-343-2006: BANGLADESH: Alleged extrajudicial killings of two more persons in the pretext of “crossfire” by the Rapid Action Battalion
UA-268-2006: BANGLADESH: Two persons killed in “crossfire” at Jessore while in the custody of the Rapid Action Battalion
UA-257-2006: BANGLADESH: Alleged brutal torture and fabrication of charges towards a man after being arbitrarily arrested by the Rapid Action Battalion in Jessore

SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please immediately write to the relevant Bangladesh authorities listed below urging them to take prompt action to investigate the alleged arbitrary arrest, torture and subsequent extrajudicial killing of the victim by the RAB-6 unit in Jessore. Please also write to the relevant UN agencies listed below and call for their intervention.

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