Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen, in a letter, requested US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to reconsider the country's decision to impose sanctions on Rapid Action Battalion and seven current and former top officials of the agency, including Benazir Ahmed (now inspector general of police).
In the letter, Momen also conveyed new year greetings, Bangla daily Prothom Alo reports today quoting Bangladesh's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
On December 10, the United States imposed the sanctions.
Benazir, former director general of Rab, and five officials were designated by the Department of the Treasury under the Global Magnitsky sanctions programme in connection with serious human rights abuse.
The five are: Rab Director General Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun; Khan Mohammad Azad, additional director general (operations) of Rab; Tofayel Mustafa Sorwar, former additional director general (operations); Mohammad Jahangir Alam, former additional director general (operations); and Mohammad Anwar Latif Khan, former additional director general (operations).
Besides, the US State Department barred Benazir, and another former official of Rab Lt Col Miftah Uddin Ahmed, from traveling to the United States.
Rab is designated pursuant to EO 13818 for being a foreign entity that is responsible for or complicit in, or has directly or indirectly engaged in, serious human rights abuse, it said on its website.
"NGOs have alleged that Rab and other Bangladeshi law enforcement are responsible for more than 600 disappearances since 2009, nearly 600 extrajudicial killings since 2018, and torture. Some reports suggest these incidents target opposition party members, journalists, and human rights activists," it noted.
Widespread allegations of serious human rights abuse in Bangladesh by Rab -- as part of the Bangladesh government's war on drugs -- threaten US national security interests by undermining the rule of law and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, and the economic prosperity of the people of Bangladesh, it added.
