HOSPITALIZED BUSINESSMAN RELAYS EXPERIENCE OF

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 DHAKA 003692

SIPDIS

DOJ FOR OPDAT-LEHMANN

E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/21/2015
TAGS: PHUM BG
SUBJECT: HOSPITALIZED BUSINESSMAN RELAYS EXPERIENCE OF
BEATINGS AND TORTURE BY RAB


Classified By: A/DCM D.C. McCullough for reasons para 1.4 b.


1. (U) SUMMARY: An apparently innocent victim of a
well-publicized beating by RAB members narrated his
experience to poloff from his hospital bed. End Summary.


2. (SBU) On July 19, SK Abubakkar Sultan, the Executive
Director of a textile factory, told poloff from his hospital
bed that he was heading towards a celebration with some
friends on July 15 in the Uttara section of Dhaka when he
noticed three men beating up a driver. He stopped to inquire
about the problem, and the men replied that the driver had
hit their car while they were on their way to a wedding.
Sultan said he suggested going to the nearby police station
to resolve the situation and one of the men who was beating
the driver threw a handful of sand in his eyes and told him
to leave them alone.


3. (SBU) Sultan claimed he does not know how one of the
assailants got hurt, perhaps inadvertently as Sultan was
trying to recover from the sand in his eyes, but one of the
assailants emerged with a bruised mouth and said, "You don't
know who you have touched, I am from RAB." According to
Sultan, this identification was not self-evident as the three
men beating the driver were not in uniform and were driving
an unmarked vehicle. They were not on duty either as they
were on their way to a wedding.


4. (SBU) When Sultan asked the member of RAB, later
identified as ASP Ashraf, why he did not say he was from the
government up front, he replied, "You will suffer the
consequences for touching a RAB person." Some police
officers entered the scene and Ashraf ordered them to arrest
Sultan. Additionally, Ashraf had called for RAB
reinforcements and two jeeps of uniformed RAB members soon
arrived.


5. (SBU) When the jeeps of RAB members arrived, they began
beating Sultan while he protested saying he's not a criminal
and they had not even tried to ascertain whether or not he
was a criminal before deciding to beat him. He then said the
RAB members encircled and pointed their guns at him while one
member urged him to run. Sultan was reluctant to run,
fearing he would get shot. According to Sultan, by this time
around 500-600 people had gathered around the scene so RAB
handcuffed Sultan and took him along with the driver they
were originally beating to their nearby RAB 1 Uttara office.


6. (SBU) He said at the office he suffered repeated beatings
by numbers of RAB officers taking turns. At one point, they
blindfolded him, tied him to a tree and fired a blank shot.
When they resumed beating him, Sultan said he asked them to
be careful because he has respiratory problems, at which
point one RAB officer replied "Good, then we don't even have
to kill him in crossfire. We can just say he died of
respiratory problems." ASP Ashraf, along with his wife,
passed by Sultan, and Ashraf reportedly expressed surprise
that Sultan was still alive. Sultan said as a result of the
beatings he soon lost consciousness.


7. (SBU) In the meantime, Sultan's friends had reached a
Lt.Col Gulgar from the army who was also a RAB officer and
who came to the RAB 1 office to intervene on Sultan's behalf.
When Gulgar came to the office, some of the RAB officers
offered three fake allegations against Sultan. Gulgar
questioned Sultan about what happened and then he separately
questioned the driver who was also being beaten at the
station. When Gulgar found the stories matching, he ordered
the RAB members to give Sultan proper treatment. After
Gulgar left, the same officers who were beating him were now
attending to him. As Sultan was leaving, the RAB members
asked him to sign a blank paper. When he showed some
reluctance, they tried using some force and he said he
relented out of exasperation.


8. (SBU) Sultan has been recovering in a hospital where one
of his legs is in a cast, the other has stitches, and there
are bruises around the rest of his body. When asked, he
didn't claim any political affiliation. Sultan characterized
the incident as an "anonymous street encounter that turned
into an obvious misuse of power" and his family is in the
process of a filing a case against RAB.


9. (SBU) RAB has initiated their own four-member inquiry
committee to look into the case. Additionally, both the Prime
Minister and the Home Minister have shown strong interest in
the case and have ordered investigations.


10. (C) Comment: While we should take a disputant's claims
with a grain of salt, his experience and allegations have
attracted widespread publicity precisely because they appear
so credible. From the beginning, we have warned that
condoned extra-judicial killings create a climate of impunity
that almost inevitably lead to serious abuse of authority.
CHAMMAS