The United States imposed sanctions against the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and some of its current and former officials without receiving any specific information, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan has said.
The minister was speaking to reporters after an event at a hotel in Dhaka on Saturday.
Mentioning United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet’s recent visit, Asaduzzaman Khan told the media that she had repeatedly said Bangladesh was not violating any human rights, and that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was running the country with utmost care.
"I only followed the statement of the UN high commissioner for human rights. People talk, but I have always said that no one believes anything unless it is based on fact and evidence,” he mentioned.
He continued by saying: “When Michelle Bachelet visited Bangladesh, we had long discussions with her. We showed her video presentations on questions she had sent us earlier,” he told reporters.
The minister noted that the government also explained the 76 enforced disappearances to her and seeing all the evidence, Bachelet said Bangladesh is not violating human rights.
On December 10 last year, the US Treasury Department imposed sanctions on RAB and its serving and former officials, including the force’s former director general Benazir Ahmed, under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, citing "serious human rights abuse relating to the officials’ tenure."
The same day, the State Department also imposed sanctions on Benazir and another RAB official.
The sanctions mean RAB will neither be allowed to own properties in the US nor engage in any financial transaction with US bodies or personnel until further notice.
