Dhaka: Accusing the government of making Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) as a killer force, Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) on Thursday renewed its demand for disbanding the elite force.

Following a recent report aired by a Swedish radio on RAB’s involvement in ‘crossfire, BNP senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi came up with the demand at a press conference at the party’s central office in Dhaka's Nayapaltan.

“The brutal acts of secret killing by RAB have pricked the consciences of people across the world, including that of in Bangladesh as a Swedish Radio revealed it. People are now widely talking about the inhuman acts the RAB resorts to suppress the opposition,” he said.

The BNP leader further said, “It’s only because of some RAB members that there have been screams of wives who have lost their husbands and the yelling of fathers and mothers who have lost their children. It seems RAB has turned into an organisation which roams with death warrants in the dark of night. We demand again to disband RAB.”

BNP has long been accusing RAB of making its some leaders and activists disappeared. The party was very vocal in 2014 with the demand for disbanding RAB.

A Swedish radio aired a special report recently and exposed how the elite force selects people to kill and its killing methods. The report claimed to have quoted a RAB official who was involved in dozens of extrajudicial killings.

However, RAB trashed the report saying it is an attempt to dent the force’s image.

Rizvi alleged that RAB members were involved with the enforced disappearance of their many party leaders, including some ex-MPs, as the government is using the force to suppress the opposition.

He also alleged that the government has stanched all democratic and human rights and the right of expression by using the RAB and other forces.

Speaking at a discussion at Dhaka Reporters Unity, BNP standing committee member Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury said the incidents of secret killing and enforced disappearance have now become an international issue as foreign media are making reports on it.

He said the government has continued enforced disappearance and its repression on opposition ignoring the repeated calls by local and international human rights bodies for stopping it.

 “It’s now recognised all over the world that they (RAB) are engaged in enforced disappearance. The world community has heard on the Swedish Radio how extrajudicial killing are being carried out in the name of crossfire,” he added.