How the elite police force RAB terrorizes the people of Bangladesh

When Bangladesh’s men in black arrive, usually late at night, it’s like death has come knocking on your door: Bangladesh’s Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) is an elite police unit that was founded in 2004 to fight terror and crime.

For years, the United States and other Western countries played an important role in training and equipping the force – despite allegations of wide-spread human rights violations. It would take until 2018 for the US to stop funding RAB, followed by sanctions in late 2021.
Now, for the first time ever, two insiders of Bangladesh’s elite force claim how RAB systematically and with explicit backing from the highest political level has been committing murder, torture, and abductions.

For this story, DW teamed up with Netra News.

An Investigation by Chris Caurla, Naomi Conrad, Arafatul Islam & Birgitta Schülke

Additional Research
Julett Pineda and several others who, for security reasons cannot be named

Camera
Birgitta Schülke & Arafatul Islam

Edit/Motion Graphics/Sound Design
Chris Caurla

Illustrations
Aleksandra Kononova

Senior Editor
Mathias Stamm

Head of DW Investigations
Sandra Petersmann