Hasina defends Britain on WikiLeaks

Dhaka: Bangladesh Prime Minister Shaikh Hasina has defended Britain rejecting allegations that the country trained Bangladesh's elite anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) despite its wide exposure to controversies for extra judicial killings.

"Do you believe that the UK has trained this force to kill our own people? Certainly not," the private UNB news agency quoted her as telling an Oxford Union discourse at Frewin Court in Britain on Thursday.

Responding to a query by a student on WikiLeaks disclosure on RAB's training in Britain despite its poor human rights records, the Bangladesh premier also said "RAB has been trained to protect citizens".

Her comments coincided with an Amnesty International statement asking RAB to stop extra judicial killing and urging British government to raise concerns before Shaikh Hasina about reports of "torture, extrajudicial executions, and excessive use of force" by the elite anti-crime troops, comprising police, army, navy and air force personnel.

WikiLeaks recently disclosed a US embassy cable on RAB men's training in Britain on "investigative interviewing techniques".