In Bangladesh, dramas staged in the name of human rights are nothing new.
But when the leading actor in such a drama happens to be a proven killer and dismissed officer accused of treason, it becomes nothing short of an insult to the nation.
Dismissed Lt. Colonel Hasinur Rahman—who, while in uniform under the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), once orchestrated the killings of countless innocent people—now stands before the public demanding justice for enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings.
It is, quite literally, a sermon on humanity from the mouth of a butcher.
From 2004 to 2006, Hasinur served in command positions across several RAB battalions, including as the Commanding Officer of RAB-7 in Chittagong.
According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), during his tenure alone, RAB-7 was responsible for 57 “crossfire” killings—amounting to 15.5% of all RAB killings nationwide during that period.
This statistic alone paints Hasinur as one of the chief architects of those bloody operations.
In September 2004, ten individuals suspected of criminal activity were shot dead near a police station in Chittagong.
Two months later, in November, Mohiuddin Mohim, a leader of the Bangladesh Chhatra League, and Iqbal Bahar Chowdhury, a Chhatra Dal leader, were arrested and later killed in so-called “crossfire” incidents—all under Hasinur’s direct command.
Newspaper archives, human rights reports, and international documentation from that time clearly show that RAB was then conducting a systematic campaign of extrajudicial killings under the euphemism “crossfire.”
Lt. Colonel Hasinur Rahman was among its principal masterminds.
Later, he was also dismissed from the Bangladesh Army on charges of anti-state activities and rebellion.
His supposed loyalty to national security and discipline existed only in words, not deeds.
So today, when this dismissed officer and proven perpetrator speaks about human rights, it is seen by the people of Bangladesh as nothing short of shameless hypocrisy.
A man whose hands are still stained with blood cannot credibly carry the banner of humanity—it is not just absurd, it is grotesque.
The time has come not for Hasinur to demand justice for others, but to face justice himself for his own past crimes.
The people of Bangladesh will no longer be deceived by the hypocrisy of this bloodstained dramatist.
