BANGLADESH: A man is killed by the Rapid Action Battalion in Barisal

[NOTICE: The AHRC has developed this automatic letter-sending system using the “button” below. However, in this appeal, we could not include e-mail addresses of some of the Bangladesh authorities. We encourage you to send your appeal letters via fax or post to those people. Fax numbers and postal addresses of the Bangladesh authorities are attached below with this appeal. Thank you.]

Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from ODHIKAR, a human rights organisation of Bangladesh, that another person has been extra-judicially killed in Barisal. The victim, identified as Mr. Md. Moshiul Alam Sentu, was a political activist. He was arbitrarily arrested and detained by the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB). The RAB allegedly demanded a bribe from his family. Sentu was killed early in the morning of the following day because his relatives failed to pay the bribe.

CASE DETAILS:

Mr. Md. Moshiul Alam Sentu, aged 34, was vice-president of the Central Committee of the Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (student wing of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party) and president of the Barisal Metropolitan Unit of the same party. He came from the West Kuniya Bagan Bari of Barisal, a southern city of Bangladesh, around 250 kilometers from the capital of Dhaka.

Sentu joined a dawn to dusk “hunger strike” protest in the Dhaka University campus on 15 July 2008 with   party colleagues. At 6pm, at the end of the strike, Sentu, along with five leaders of different party units went by rickshaw to eat outside the university. About 7pm, after hiring three rickshaws, Sentu and his five companions came to the Nilkhet intersection in front of the Sir A.F. Rahman Hall of the university. A white microbus bearing the sticker of RAB-3 (Rapid Action Battalion) came from behind, chasing them and signaling them to stop. As the rickshaws stopped, RAB personnel fired one round of blank shots into the air. Afraid of becoming a victim of the gunfire, Sentu jumped from the rickshaw and tried to escape. The RAB officers then shot Sentu in his left leg. As Sentu still tried to escape, about 7 RAB officers caught him and threw him to the ground. The officers then blindfolded Sentu with a towel, tied his hands, took him into their vehicle and left.

In a separate rickshaw, Mr. Syed Monzurul Islam Mamun, Sentu’s companion had been able to escape being arrested. However, from a short distance away, he witnessed the actions of the RAB personnel at the scene.  About 15 minutes after the abduction, using his mobile phone, he called Sentu’s mother, Mrs.Chaina Momtaz Begum, in Barisal.

As soon as Mrs. Chaina came to know about the arrest and shooting of her son Sentu, she telephoned the office of the RAB-8, in Barisal. Major Mr. A K M Mamunur Rahsid Mamun of the RAB-8 confirmed the arrest of Sentu assuring her that nothing unwarranted would happen to her son.

At about 5:30am on 16 July, Mrs. Chaina went to the house of Major Mamun at the Telephone & Telegraph department’s housing compound in Barisal. She wanted to ascertain the whereabouts of her son, Sentu and the condition of his health. However, Major Mamun was not at home that early in the morning. His wife said that he was out for his “morning walk. At about 6am, Chaina then called Mamun on his mobile phone. Mamun informed her that Sentu would be brought to Barisal and would not face any problems.  He requested Chaina to come to the RAB-8 office at 9am that same day.

At about 6:30am, Mrs. Chaina heard from people that Sentu had been killed in “crossfire” in the Bilbobari area of Kashipur of Barisal early in the morning. She rushed to the scene to verify the news.

Meanwhile, a resident of Bilbobari village named Ms. Morzina Begum told the human rights fact-finders that on 16 July 2008 at around 4am she witnessed part of the “crossfire” of Sentu. She woke up to check how much rain had fallen during the night. She claims, in the semi-darkness, to have witnessed three RAB vehicles arriving and stopping suddenly on the street beside her house. About 15 members of the RAB were walking around. She went back inside to wake up her daughter Ratna. They both then stood outside their house to see what was going to happen. The officers were seen standing in different groups in various parts of the road, which had a paddy field on one side and a canal on the other. The RAB officers blocked the road and fired about three blank shots into the air. They began to continually open and close the doors of their vehicles. Then the RAB officers carried something out of the vehicle and put it in the paddy field. After few minutes she heard the sound of gunshots. Unable to even think about sleeping until finding out more about the incident, she took a Koloshi (earthen jar for carrying and preserving water in rural area) and pretended to be collecting water. She walked past the scene where the RAB had gathered and moved toward her neighbour’s house. On coming back the same way, she saw a body lying in the paddy field, very close to the road with RAB officers scattering something on the ground.  Morzina was asked by the RAB officers whether she could identity the body. To avoid any future trouble she replied in the negative. Then the officers told her that the person was Chhatra Dal leader Sentu, who had just been killed in a “shootout.” At this time the RAB personnel brought ammunition from their vehicles and scattered them on the ground. There was no ammunition in this area when she first saw it. About 7am police and a Magistrate arrived at the scene and prepared an Inquest Report on the dead body. She confirmed that there was no blood on or around the place where Sentu’s dead body was placed but merely two new towels.

Another eye-witness named Ms. Khaleda Begum asserted that she witnessed the RAB officers firing blank shots from their guns at about 4am. After an hour she went to the paddy field and saw a dead body and two towels. None of the neighbouring families heard any other sounds except the movement and blank gunshots fired by the RAB.

A retired army officer named Mr. Mahtab, from West Kauniya Bagan village, visited the scene and saw the members of the RAB standing around the dead body of Sentu. He noticed a few guns and bullets scattered on the road.  The paddy field, which was the scene of the “shootout”, was not trampled and there was no damage to the crops. Mahtab told the rights activists that he had seen Sentu’s dead body at the scene of the alleged “shootout”.  The body had two bullets in the chest shot from very close range and a bullet in the left leg shot from a few feet away. This estimate was given from his long experience in the army. The dead body seemed to have been placed in the paddy field. He argued that if there was a gunfight between two groups there would have been extensive damage to the paddy field.

In a written statement Lt. Col. Mr. Irshad, Commanding Officer of RAB-8 in Barisal, labeled Sentu a “notorious criminal” and described the story of his arrest and killing. He claims that a team of detectives from RAB-8, located in Dhaka, learned from an undisclosed source about Sentu’s presence between the Palashi and Katabon areas of the city. The team carried out an operation and attempted to arrest Sentu at around 7pm on 15 July 2008 but Sentu tried to escape. The RAB officers managed to chase and arrest him. Following interrogations it was unearthed that Sentu kept huge amounts of ammunitions and explosives in various parts of Barisal. On 16 July at 4:15am when the team arrived at Bilbobari of Kashipur in Barisal, Sentu’s associates attacked their (RAB) microbus and opened fire in order to recapture Sentu. To protect State property and to maintain their safety RAB fired back. Sentu managed to escape from the RAB microbus. The exchange of fire continued for about 12 minutes after which Sentu’s associates stopped firing. The RAB officers cordoned off the whole area and at dawn found Sentu’s body in the area of the shootout along with the ammunition of his associates. The windows of the RAB microbus were broken and two officers were injured in the incident.

Sub-Inspector Mr. Swapan of the Kotowali Police Station of the Barisal Metropolitan Police informed the rights activists that at 8am on July 16, Magistrate Mr. Mahbubul Karim prepared an Inquest Report on the body of Sentu. In referring to the report SI Swapan stated that Sentu’s dead body was lying on its back in the paddy field. The body had one bullet inside the left thigh and two bullets in the chest that exited through the back. No blood was found at the scene. A post-mortem was conducted by the doctors of the Forensic Medicine Department of the Sher-e-Bangla Medical College Hospital of Barisal. The body was handed over to the family at 12 noon on the same day.

Dr. Habibur Rahman, an Assistant Professor of the Forensic Medicine Department of Sher-e-Bangla Medical College, said that while conducting the postmortem he found a bullet in the left thigh and two bullets in the chest that exited the back. He made no further comments on the death of the deceased.

Sentu’s relatives allege that there was serious bruising about the neck and the right arm of the deceased. At about 2:30pm on 16 July a large number of RAB and police accompanied by Mr. Awal Mollah, a Commissioner of the Barisal City Corporation brought the dead body of Sentu to his home. The law-enforcers observed the burial, leaving the home at 5pm. The presence of the law-enforcers was a way of threatening and intimidating relatives and neighbours. This ensured that no one would initiate any discussion about the incident.

Sentu’s mother, Mrs. Chaina, alleges that her family learned about the plan to kill Sentu under the pretext of crossfire, even though he was not a criminal and had no case against him. This information came from Mr. Sultan, who quoted Major Mamun. She held meetings with Major Mamun with mediation of two persons namely Mr. Dolon and Md. Sultan of the Rupatoli area, Barisal. She requested the officer to save her son’s life. Major Mamun allegedly received BDT 300,000.00 (USD 4,460) as a bribe on 19 or 20 June 2008 on condition that the RAB would not kill Sentu. She demands justice in the killing of her son.

When contacted by the rights activists both Mr. Dolon and Md.Sultan admitted that they assisted Sentu’s mother Mrs. Chaina in holding a meeting with Major Mamun on hearing the report that Sentu might be killed in “crossfire”. However, both of them expressed ignorance about the alleged bribery.

To date there has been no further developments regarding the killing of Sentu.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:

The statements of eye-witnesses, the information of the inquest report and the forensic medicine expert support each other in proving that the Commanding Officer of RAB-8 was lying in his written statement. The two persons, who assisted the victim’s mother in holding a meeting with RAB’s officer Major Mamun, admitted that they arranged the meeting after having learned that Sentu might be killed by RAB in “crossfire”. It proves that RAB had a prior plan to kill the victim. Although these two persons did not assent to the bribe allegedly received by Major Mamun, there are many reasons left for this to be questioned.  There have been many previous and obvious incidents of bribery or robbery by RAB officers. But there has been not a single case of a credible investigation regarding extrajudicial killings in Bangladesh. (Please see previous cases of killing by RAB: UP-155-2007, UA-231-2007, UA-170-2007)

The Rapid Action Battalion is widely known as a “licensed killing agency” that started the planned killings of people. There are publicized stories in Bangladesh of hundreds of deaths in similar circumstances. The authorities of the State have adopted extrajudicial killing as their key policy in “maintaining law and order” while destroying the rule of law at the same time. Since the creation of this “elite” paramilitary force by the country’s policymakers, more than 500 persons have been killed by this force. None of these cases has yet been credibly investigated or prosecuted in the last five years. The absolute power to kill and the blatant impunity afforded to the alleged perpetrators have caused the disappearance of minimum norms of behavior and a sense of justice within the law-enforcing agencies of Bangladesh. They kill to earn money and promotion, following the instructions of their superiors.  The government has awarded this force with the Independence Day Award in 2006 apart from the individual awards RAB members received despite their notorious record of killing people all across the country.

It is hard for the people of Bangladesh to believe in this trend and the relentlessness of such killings. The RAB agency has been above the law in its commission of these serial crimes coupled with a reputation among the people of being killers. Due to this reputation, people frequently threaten their rivals with death by “crossfire” using the RAB as perpetrators.

SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please write letters to the relevant authorities to investigate this alleged killing and insist upon a credible investigation as well as punishment of the alleged perpetrators in accordance with the law.

The AHRC has also written separate letters to the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions calling for intervention in this case.

To support this case, please click here: SEND APPEAL LETTER