Rab to perform \\\'7\\\' specific tasks only

The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) has said it will not perform additional duties beyond its ‘seven’ specific tasks. Media wing director Habibur Rahman said the RAB Director General (DG) informed each of the elite force battalion that they won’t have to perform additional duties beyond their seven specific tasks. At its inception, the RAB was tasked with seven jobs. These were ensuring internal security, arresting armed militants and terrorists, recovering illegal arms and ammunition, assisting other law-enforcing agencies, gathering intelligence, investigating any crime and performing any duty as per government orders. ‘RAB members used to perform some additional tasks apart from these primary tasks,’ Rahman has said. RAB will also not control traffic, guard tender boxes, and intervene in issues relating to land, money and family matters. The RAB director general has also emphasised training, Rahman added. The crime-busting unit has recently been widely criticised for violating human rights and extrajudicial killings in ‘crossfires’. More recently, the alleged involvement of its officers with the abduction and killing of seven people, including Narayanganj City Corporation’s panel mayor Nazrul Islam and senior lawyer Chandan Kumar Sarker, prompted calls for disbanding the outfit altogether. Around 2,000 of its members have been penalised in the last 10 years. The force came into existence in 2004 to combat domestic crimes and terrorism. Speakers at a recent roundtable discussion in Dhaka this past weekend suggested ‘reforming’ the RAB and giving it ‘training on how to behave’, according to a news agency.