Bangladesh police 'death squad' under fire

BANGADESH: Bangladesh's feared Rapid Action Battalion police kill about 100 "criminals" a year, but when they shot 16-year-old Limon Hossain they discovered that their impunity might have limits.

Hossain, a student who has become a symbol for anger over tactics commonly used by elite "RAB" officers, was hit at point-blank range and survived only after his leg was amputated.

The RAB say he was a member of a criminal "terrorist" gang and was wounded in a gunfight with RAB commandos, but government-backed agencies, rights groups and even - it seems - the prime minister have all questioned its account.

Hossain's case has unleashed an outpouring of criticism of the RAB, which can normally rely on public support for its routine killing of alleged criminals in what it describes as "encounters" or "incident shootings".

"I was walking home when one officer grabbed my shirt collar," Hossain told AFP, recalling the daytime attack in March near his village of Jhalakati in southwest Bangladesh.

"He said I was a terrorist. I told him I wasn't, I told him I was just an ordinary student but he didn't listen - he shot me through the leg. AFP