Rapid Action Battalion (Bengali: র‍্যাপিড অ্যাকশন ব্যাটালিয়ন, romanized: Rayāpiḍa ayākaśana byāṭāliẏana; abbreviated as RAB) is an anti-crime and anti-terrorism unit of the Bangladesh Police.

[2] The Rapid Action Battalion has faced criticism from human rights groups for their use of extrajudicial killings and alleged involvement in forced disappearances.

[4] The act was passed through the amendment of the Armed Forces Battalion Ordinance 1979 which provides immunity to RAB officers for actions taken in the course of their duty.

[12] On 30 May 2005, RAB arrested Abul Kalam Azad Sumon, a tailor and Bangladesh Chhattra League activist, from Dhaka along with two others.

[12] According to his mother, Sumon had switched from Bangladesh Nationalist Party to Awami League which angered his local member of parliament Mirza Abbas.

[12] On 24 January 2007, journalist Jahangir Alam Akash was detained and tortured by RAB-5 in Rajshahi by Major Rashidul Hassan Rashid.

[12] On 15 July 2008, Moshiul Alam Sentu of Bangladesh Jatiotabadi Chatra Dal was detained by Rapid Action Battalion from Dhaka and his body was found the next day in a paddy field in Barisal.

[13] Dr. Mizanur Rahman Tutul, leader of the insurgent Purbo Banglar Communist Party, was detained on 26 July and his body was recovered the next day.

[15] On 22 October, F. M. Masum, a reporter of the New Age, was beaten after he hesitated to open the door for plainclothes RAB officers who were assaulting his landlord's wife.

[15] On 22 March 2010, Bangladesh Police stopped a photo exhibition on deaths by RAB at Drik Picture Library by Shahidul Alam.

[17] Mohammad Rafiqul Islam, a salesman and member of extremist Allah-r Dol, was forcible disappeared by RAB in February.

[15] On 4 November 2011, Colonel Zulfiqar Ali Majumder led members of his unit, Rapid Action Battalion-7, to Talsara Darbar Sharif and robbed the compound keeping the pir at gunpoint.

[26] In March 2017, Intelligence Wing chief Lieutenant Colonel Abul Kalam Azad was killed in a bomb blast in Sylhet while raiding an Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant hideout.

[5] RAB detained three business partners of Major General Tarique Ahmed Siddique, defence advisor to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, in January 2019.

[5] In 2021, Al Jazeera released a documentary called All the Prime Minister's Men in which the brother of the then Chief of Army, General Aziz Ahmed, bragged about RAB as his personal gangsters and thugs who make money for him and them through detentions.

[29] In August 2022, Lieutenant Colonel Mohammad Ismail Hossain, air wing director, died after being injured in a helicopter crash.

[31] In 2023, Deutsche Welle published a documentary titled "Inside the Death Squad," which delved into the allegations of human rights abuses and extrajudicial killings committed by the RAB.

[65] According to Human Rights Watch, members of Rapid Action Battalion have shot and killed women and children during public protests.

[68][69][70][71] Limon Hossain, a college student at Jamaddarhat at Rajapur Upazila in Jhalakati, was shot at by RAB personnel near his house on 23 March 2011, triggering a local and international outcry.

[72] The government finally decided to withdraw the cases against Limon on 9 July 2013, citing his need to return to a "healthy and normal life".

[73] Rapid Action Battalion is accused of framing a Bangladeshi expatriate named Shamim Sikder on false charges of drug and forged currency and torturing him in custody.

[78] Six individuals associated with RAB – including its Director General, Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun, former DG Benazir Ahmed, ADG Colonel KM Azad were also sanctioned.

[79] Bangladesh Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen wrote an open letter to the US Secretariat of State Antony Blinken regarding RAB to reconsider those sanctions.