Desk Report
The government has decided to restructure RAB. A five-member committee, including an advisor, has been formed to make recommendations on overall issues including changing the name and uniform of RAB. Home Affairs Advisor Lieutenant General (retd) Jahangir Alam Chowdhury gave this information after a meeting of the Law and Order Advisory Council on Monday (May 12).
The Home Affairs Advisor said, there have been detailed discussions on what the RAB will be called, whether it will have this name or not, this uniform or everything. The five-member committee can increase its members by co-opting.
The Advisor also said, the police will not have any deadly weapons. The ones they have will have to be surrendered. Deadly weapons will only be with the Armed Police Battalion. However, he said, the police will have riflenas.
After the fall of the Awami League government, the changing situation led to demands for reforms in the police force, including changes in their uniforms. In that context, on January 20, the Advisory Council meeting at the Ministry of Home Affairs approved new uniforms for the police, RAB, and Ansar forces. At that time, it was said that RAB would be getting ‘green olive’ colored uniforms instead of the completely black color.
Later, on February 19, in a meeting on law and order, the Home Affairs Advisor said that there had been discussions on reorganizing the force, including changing the name of RAB. The name may be finalized in the next meeting. What the name might be is still under discussion.
