London, Aug 25 (ANI): Human Rights organization Amnesty International has urged Bangladeshi government to honor their pledge to stop extrajudicial executions by its special police force.
A new report from the rights group said the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) has been implicated in the killing of at least 700 people since its inception in 2004, the BBC reports.
The report said that nearly 200 alleged RAB killings have occurred since January 2009 when the Awami League government came to power, despite Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's pledge to end extrajudicial killings.
RAB justified the killings as accidental or as a result of officers acting in self-defense, but, in reality, most victims were killed following their arrest, the report said.
"Hardly a week goes by in Bangladesh without someone being shot by RAB with the authorities saying they were killed or injured in 'crossfire' or a 'gun-fight'," Abbas Faiz, Amnesty International's Bangladesh researcher, said.
"However the authorities choose to describe such incidents, the fact remains that they are suspected unlawful killings," Faiz added.
The group also pointed out that investigations into the killings are either carried out by RAB or a government-appointed judicial body and have never resulted in prosecution.
The government has yet to respond to the Amnesty report. (ANI)
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