This Issue Brief highlights the role of Bangladesh Police in the current authoritarian Awami League regime (2009-present). The ruling regime has been sustaining itself through several coercive measures, including enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killing, repression, and torture. The regime has been using the Police, an essential organ of the Bangladeshi Republic, as a partisan force to violently repress the opposition and muzzle the critical voices. Although the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) is frequently referenced in connection with extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances and termed as the “death squad,” the role of the Bangladesh Police has been often unnoticed. This Issue Brief demonstrates the police are involved in more cases of crimes against humanity than the RAB.
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