US embassy cable - 05DHAKA3692

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, Crime/Murders 
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