The Daily Star editorial glorifies RAB for it’s bravado and efficiency.
I agree.
Daily Star says,
The blitzkrieg raid in Comilla is a sort of baptism in fire that the Rab went through launching itself into what appears to be the most daunting phase of the anti-terrorism offensive.
Sure, it’s the baptism in fire.
Much as we are opposed to the crossfire killing phenomenon that has tainted the human rights reputation of the country, we find the effectiveness of Rab’s Comilla operation highly laudable, particularly in the loaded sequel to the arrest of kingpins Sheakh Abdur Rahman and Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai.
Remember Chittagong court house suicide bomb incident. When a suicide bomber, with visible bomb strapped to the body, was threatening to blow himself up, RAB could keep fingers away from trigger. Mind it, it is tough under that intense pressure. They innovated new methods to contain suicide bomber; water hose. The bomber was effectively deactivated and contained with high pressure water flow.
Under all the threats, they remained patient and could arrest Shayekh Rahman, and Siddiqul Islam alive.
And even in explosive situations like that in Comilla, they kept their cool and could nab Sahyekh’s son nabil alive.
This is impressive.
Especially if you compare them with trigger happy SWAT teams here in USA or other western nation.
If an American team was asked to conduct the operation to arrest Abdur Rahman/Bangla Vai, you would have seen hundreds of soldiers well protected with armors, helmts, bullet proof vests. You would have seen helicopters hovering overhead, F 16s and laser guided missiles. You would have seen heavily armed soldiers hiding behind armored humvees.
And Media, live TV coverage? Forget about it!!!
And at the end of the operation, you may have seen dead Shayekh Rahman, Bangla vai and dozen of dead innocent civilians of the neigbourhood. And may be some dead SWAT member in friendly fire.
We tend to blame RAB for all the extra judicial killings. I feel this is like blaming the executioner for all the capital punishments. If RAb does some extrajudicial killing, it only did it because they were ordered to do so. They were ordered because policy makers decided in favor of it. Policymakers, often politicians, decided in favor of these extra judicials killings because these killings are wildly popular to the general masses in Bnagladesh. And this general mass will decide who will rule Bangladesh for the next five years.
March 15, 2006 at 12:26 pm
You are right that RAB is doing what it is told. Blaming RAB does not do any good. Also RAB is very popular among the masses.
The issue I’d like to raise, however, is why are only leftist cadres being killed in the crossfire? Not that I am defending leftist cadres but there seems to be a specific focus.
Shibir cadres who deserted Shibir and moved to BNP were killed also. I think only 1 Shibir leader has been killed so far in crossfire.
It’s open season if you are not on the good side of Jamaat-Shibir.
March 15, 2006 at 6:07 pm
The problem is that the politics of Jamaat-shibir is much smarter than that out traditional political parties.
This is scary.
As I observed the activities of RAB since it’s inception, I could see a pattern. Looks like they will kill marked criminals with authentic allegations of multiple murders for non-political reasons. Also criminals convicted of major crimes who are evading legal system by jumping bail etc are also under the radar screen of RAB.
A reason while shibir activists are not the usual RAB victims is that Shibir workers do not usually match the above mentioned criteria.
From my own experience in spending significant time in a Shibir dominated campus, I can tell that, core shibir activists are usually the most benign looking, ever smiling, quite, nice and one of the best students of the class.
They usually are not involved in frequent violence, extortion, drug abuse etc. They will rather resort to intimidation technique to keep campus under control. However I saw, when ordered by high command, these nicest student can turn into a killer within a second.
But again these are ideological political killings. In Bangladesh context, almost every senior political leader has cases against them. That probably makes RAB avoid political cases.
However once a while shibir also gets hooked to marked criminals. Shibir Nasir is one of them. Rumor is that he is spending tons of money to remain in the jail. He knows once out of jail, he will be killed by RAB. Another such shibir criminal Gittu Nasir was recently killed by RAB.
Again, it’s such a scary helpless feeling when you see Shibir Jamaat so much smarted than their political rivals. Don’t know how we will stop them with our current inept mainstream political leadership.