Para militarization and a Culture of Impunity in Policing: A Study on Human Rights Violation by the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) in Bangladesh

Abstract: The human rights issue becomes significant in Bangladesh in the sense that the state law enforcing machinery such as Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), a para military elite force, is actively involved in massive human rights violations with impunity. This paper will target to explore underlying causes of human rights violation by RAB. This paper mainly will look at how the government of Bangladesh is allowing RAB in substantial human rights violation in the country, and for what reason state and non- state actors are not playing an active role to stop these violations. The RAB was formed on 26 March 2004, as a vital anti-crime and anti-terrorism elite force, comprising influential members of various law enforcement agencies. Since its inception, it has engaged in committing vast extrajudicial killings, custodial death, arbitrary arrests and detention, disappearance, and torture. This paper will argue that the paramilitarization of policing and a culture of impunity may lead to gross human rights violation by RAB in Bangladesh. Although the government of Bangladesh does not release official data of human rghts violations by RAB, secondary data from media, national and international non-profitable human rights organizations will be collected and used accordingly in this paper. This is a pivotal study on the involvement of government elite force in extensive human rights violations in the course of law enforcement. Finally the findings will argue that the application of human rights principles in law enforcement and reducing a culture of impunity may promise to lessen human rights violation by RAB in Bangladesh.