DHAKA, Bangladesh – An elite security force in Bangladesh has become little more than a government death squad, employing torture and murdering more than 350 suspects in custody, according to a Human Rights Watch report released Thursday.

The force, known as the Rapid Action Battalion, or RAB, carried out widespread torture, including boring holes in suspects with electric drills, according to a 79-page report released by the group.

“Bangladesh's Rapid Action Battalion has become a government death squad,” said Brad Adams, Asia Director at Human Rights Watch.

“Its methods are illegal and especially shameful to a nation whose citizen just won the Nobel Prize for peace,” he said, referring to Muhammad Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank, who accepted the prize earlier this week.

The report said the force, created in 2004 to combat crime, “has made a practice of killing criminal suspects in detention.” Torture methods used by the force include beatings and the use of electric shock, it said.

The elite force was established by the government of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, who transferred power in October to an interim government ahead of general elections slated for Jan. 23.

The killings have continued under the interim government, the report stated, cautioning that the force could be used by Zia's party for political reasons ahead of the election.

“Human Rights Watch is concerned that Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which maintains great influence over the caretaker government and its security structures, may use RAB for political means during the campaign,” the report stated.

An RAB spokesman contacted by telephone about the report declined to comment.

Bangladesh, an impoverished nation of 140 million people in South Asia, has been paralyzed for the past two months by street protests to demand electoral reform. Strikes and transport blockades have often turned violent, leaving more than 30 dead and scores injured.

On Thursday, riot police stopped supporters of a 14-party opposition alliance from marching on election offices in several towns and cities outside the capital, forcing the protesters to stage rallies behind barricades, ATN Bangla television reported. 10 people were hurt in clashes with police in Sylhet city, 120 miles northeast of Dhaka.

Zia's government has defended the force's killings, saying the victims were wanted criminals or leading terrorists who died when they resisted arrest or were caught in a crossfire between the force and criminal gangs.

Human Rights Watch noted that no member of the special force is known to have been convicted of a crime in connection with the torture or killing of a detainee.

“The fact that no RAB member has been criminally prosecuted for any of these killings is a great stain on Bangladesh,” said Adams. “The country has very capable lawyers and judges, so clearly a decision not to prosecute these killers has come from above.”

The report urged Bangladesh's international donors not to provide materials or financial support to the force so long as it persists in using torture and extrajudicial killings.

The United Nations should thoroughly review the participation in peacekeeping operations of Bangladeshi soldiers, the report said.