MP points JS to RAB 'torture cell' in Pabna...........

A ruling party lawmaker on Monday alleged in parliament that Rapid Action Battalion had opened an office fronting for a "torture cell" inside a stadium in Pabna.

He asked the home minister if the RAB office would be relocated.

"We will definitely relocate the office of the battalion if it causes discomfort to the people," Sahara Khatun, the home minister, said replying to the question by Golam Faruk Khandaker Prince from a Pabna constituency.

The minister, however, did not say anything about the allegation brought by the MP.

Prince said the elite force had been playing a role in curbing crime since it was commissioned in 2004.

But RAB's Unit 12, in Pabna, took control over the district stadium hampering sports activities, he said.

"They opened their office inside the stadium. Also they captured the swimming pool there and turned it into a torture centre," alleged the lawmaker.

RAB has been tainted by accusations of extrajudicial killings ever since its creation. The force, according to human rights reports, has allegedly killed more than 600 suspected criminals in infamously-termed "crossfire" incidents.

The Awami League-led alliance government has recently pledged to put an end to extrajudicial killings.

Another Awami League MP, Ekabbar Hossain from a Tangail constituency, asked the minister whether the elite force was empowered to summon the plaintiff and accused in any case pending in the court.

But the minister parried the question saying, "Please, submit a notice to get the answer to your question".