2,000 Rab men punished in 10-yr

Built to tackle terror, hundreds of men of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) have been punished for committing crimes in the last 10 years. The elite force was introduced in 2004 to fight crimes and terrorism. However, nearly 2,000 of its members, mostly officials, have been punished for different crimes. Last week, three Rab officials were booked for having links with the abduction and murder of seven people, including Councillor Nazrul Islam and senior lawyer Advocate Chandan Kumar Sarkar, in Narayanganj. Two of them were army officers while the other was naval officer who all have already lost their job. The Rab is also investigating them. According to Rab, 1,949 of its officers have faced punishment, mostly on charge of having involvement with different crimes, since the force’s inception. This means 16 Rab members are committing crimes on average every month. Currently, Rab has nearly 9,000 officers. Of them, 44 per cent have come from the police, 44 per cent from the army, navy and air force and 12 per cent have been drawn from Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), Ansar and VDP, Coastguards and other law-enforcing agencies. According to the elite force, until May 6 this year, 729 Rab members who came from the army were punished for committing crimes. The number was 54 for the navy and 62 for the air force. Apart from them, 817 members who faced punishment too were from police, 206 from BGB and 81 were from Ansar. The first-ever crime committed by Rab personnel came into light after five months into its coming into existence, according to bdnews24.com.