Rab’s rebranding is not the answer

Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed’s announcement of a new law for the Rapid Action Battalion (Rab), made during the force’s 22nd founding anniversary ceremony on Monday, is quite astonishing. When asked whether Rab would continue to exist in its current form, the minister avoided giving a clear answer, stating instead that the government was in the process of creating “a new elite force” under a new legal framework. A day later, the Prime Minister’s Information and Broadcasting Adviser Zahed Ur Rahman added that the force may operate under a new name. Given that the name has become synonymous with a feared security force notorious for “systemic” human rights violations and for serving as an instrument of the deposed autocratic regime of Sheikh Hasina, merely rebranding it will not wipe the slate clean for Rab.

What makes the situation ironic is that the home minister himself filed a petition with the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) on June 3, 2025, accusing former Rab DG Benazir Ahmed along with six others of abducting and forcibly disappearing him. Almost all national and international human rights organisations have consistently called for Rab’s abolition because of its notorious record of grave abuses of power and disregard for fundamental human rights. The United Nations' human rights body, whose experts investigated the mass killings during the anti-autocracy uprising in July-August 2024, also identified Rab as responsible for excessive force and brutality, and recommended that the force be disbanded. The Commission on Enforced Disappearances headed by Justice Moyeenul Islam Chowdhury, established by the interim government, found that Rab accounted for nearly one-fourth of all disappearance complaints, and recommended replacing it with a specialised elite force composed of skilled police officers while excluding armed force personnel.

It is important to remind the government that although BNP originally established Rab during its previous term, its own leaders and activists later became among the worst victims of the force’s human rights abuses. For that very reason, the party and former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia repeatedly demanded Rab’s disbandment during their years in opposition. Several senior party leaders, including the party secretary general, publicly pledged during election campaigns to abolish the force. One also cannot ignore the fact that Rab is the only institution in the country whose misconduct and abuses have led to international sanctions, most notably from the US. All these failures and abuses must be taken into account as the government appears hesitant to honour its pre-election pledge to replace the force.

The government should therefore refrain from retreating from the bold and necessary step of implementing the recommendation of the Commission on Enforced Disappearances by replacing Rab with a new elite force drawn solely from the police and excluding members of the armed forces. Only then will the home minister’s assurance—that the proposed law would clearly define the force’s powers, duties, and accountability mechanisms to ensure transparency and protect human rights—carry genuine meaning.