SEVEN Rohingya men were killed in what law enforcers called a gunfight with the members of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) on a hill in Cox’s Bazar’s Teknaf upazila early Monday, according to local media. Tipped off that a gang of ‘Jokey Group’ was taking preparation to commit robbery in Jadimora-Mochni of the hill behind Rohingya Camp No. 27, a team of RAB conducted a drive there around 4:30am. Sensing the presence of law enforcers, the group members opened fire on them prompting the RAB to fire back in self-defence that triggered the gunfight. After two and a half hours of the gunfight, the elite force members recovered seven bodies from the spot. They also recovered two firearms from the spot.
Not to be content with carrying out extra-judicial killings on our own criminals RAB has now started to do the same on ‘imported’ ones like the Rohingyas. But such activities should be carried out on a court of law. RAB can’t act as judge, jury and executioner by itself. Then what is the function of the courts of law? To act as mute testimonials to the orchestrated killings? This behaviour of RAB and other security forces must change. While eight years have passed by of the Sagar-Runi murders RAB has made no headway in the investigation — in fact seven investigating officers have taken part in the process. So RAB and our other security forces must prove that it has more ‘brains’ rather than ‘brawn’. One way to do that is to solve killings which have remained unsolved for eight years.
For after all, if RAB can find out and kill seven Rohingya criminals deep in the hinterlands of Bangladesh it can’t be believable that the elite force can’t solve murders which occurred in the heart of the capital. If it proves itself incapable then the case should be transferred to the PBI (Police Bureau of Investigation). The PBI has recently solved a thirty-year old case so it just might be upto the task.
