New York: Charging the Bangladesh security forces with extrajudicial killings and arbitrary arrests, a United States-based human rights watchdog has asked the government to take steps to put an end to such practices.

"A state of emergency cannot justify killings by the security forces. The government should put a quick end to these abuses," said Human Rights Watch in a new report released yesterday.

The report demanded an independent inquiry into allegations of these and previous extrajudicial killings.

It quotes local human rights groups to allege that Bangladesh's security forces are implicated in a spate of extrajudicial killings since a state of emergency was declared in the country on January 11.

"The killings have been attributed to members of the army, the police, and the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), an elite anti-crime and anti-terrorism force," HRW said.

Bangladesh is in a period of political uncertainty as the country's caretaker government, tasked with running the country until elections, negotiates with the main political parties over an election date and proposed electoral reform.

The recent upsurge in reported extrajudicial killings by security forces, the report says, began on January 11, when the first caretaker government head declared a state of emergency and resigned.

After weeks of violent protests, elections originally set for January 22 were indefinitely postponed.