Rights activist Sultana Kamal on Saturday said that the recent sanctions on the Rapid Action Battalion and seven of its former and serving officials by the United States were not ‘whimsical’, rather a long scrutiny had led to the decision.
It is ‘unfortunate’ that extrajudicial killings have been suspended following the sanctions, she said.
‘We could be happy had the state listened to our call in the past instead of heeding the sanctions,’ She said while addressing journalists at the office of her new venture Manabadhikar Shongskriti Foundation in the capital’s Dhanmondi area.
On December 10, 2021, the US Treasury Department imposed sanctions due to serious human rights violations.
These actions came at the last day of the virtual Democracy Summit organised by the White House, to which Bangladesh was not invited.
Since the sanction was imposed, Bangladesh saw not extrajudicial killings in the incidents of ‘gunfight’ or ‘crossfire’.
In past, when High Court asked the government to stop extrajudicial killing, the then attorney general promised that such killings would be stopped but it was suspended hardly for only 11 days, Sultana Kamal said.
She said enforced disappearance continued over years.
About her new venture, Sultana Kamal, also former caretaker adviser, explained that she came up with the initiative since the people across the country should be more sensitised about their fundamental rights.
The people now feel completely helpless in seeking justice and are losing their dignity due to surge of corruption, she said.