Bangladesh:Gunfight at BDR headquarters

[Straight]

Straight, maybe next time you will like to stick to the question on hand. We simply don't care about how you guys are growing up smarter and smarter day by day. And similarly you need not worry about my country's attitude.

Coming to the only decent line in your whole rant, Circumstantial evidence needs decent amount of corroborative evidence to support it. In absence of which, your so called "Circumstantial Evidence" becomes a defunct Theory.

The only corroborative evidence as per your post is India's relationship with Hassina? That is your best bet?

On second thought I felt, I should. As regards to your 1st para: I replied to you first, and mentioned few more related feelings as I thought that you as a gentleman, you will understand.....but....Never mind forget it all together.

As regards to your 3rd Para: Not only simple "relationship", Stumper---but degree, nature, duration & incidence of repetition of it with its clearly shown & proven power of damage to Bangladesh's interest etc.etc. A host of issues and evidences based on so many events.

If SH/BAL there, so is India. The brief history of Bangladesh proves beyond doubt--so far---that SH/BAL with India is an established phenomenon, and is a deadly combination to people of Bangladesh. I will not say that to India alone.

In case you are really seeking the truth, you have to collect those yourself. Why not you start with The India Doctrine by Barrister MBI Munshi as advised?

 

[idune]

And similarly you need not worry about my country's attitude.

India threatening to intervene in Bangladesh internal security matter and mobilized military assets closed to Bangladesh border and you lecture us no to worry about your country India? Why shouldn't we have a good laugh at your naive suggestion???

Addressing them in the capital’s Mavalankar Hall, foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee disclosed a conspiracy was afoot to destabilise the elected governments in Bangladesh and Pakistan. He let out a hitherto unknown fact to the audience: "I had to go out of my way to issue a stern warning to those trying to destabilise the Sheikh Hasina government in Bangladesh that if they continued with their attempts, then India would not sit idle." In other words, New Delhi had conveyed it was willing to take counter-measures in the Great Game, including the possibility of direct intervention.

http://outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20090316&fname=Cover+Story&sid=1&pn=2

And for Bangladeshi members, when Indians brings flimsy and baseless arguments only to distract and divert from truth, no amount of proof or reasoning would be matter. Indian will keeping coming back repeating same BS and circular logic. You can entertain Indian wish or just ignore them and get on with facts and real issues.

 

[Stumper]

That is why I replied to you first, and thought as a gentleman, you will understand.....but....Never mind forget it all together.

Not only simple "relationship", Stumper---but degree, nature, duration & incidence of repetition of it with its clearly shown & proven power of damage to Bangladesh's interest etc.etc. A host of issues and evidences based on so many events.

If SH/BAL there, so is India. The brief history of Bangladesh proves beyond doubt--so far---that SH/BAL with India is an established phenomenon, and is a deadly combination to people of Bangladesh. I will not say that to India alone.

In you are seeking the truth, you have to collect those yourself. Why not you start with The India Doctrine by Barrister MBI Munshi ?

Straight, tell me, do you understand whats a corroborative evidence? You need a multiple corroborative evidence to be grouped together as circumstantial evidence.

India having good relationship with Hassina is not one of them. Indian media, as you claim, having advance knowledge of this incident can be termed as a single corroborative evidence BUT NOT AGAINST INDIAN Government. Have this distinction clear.

If i go by your logic, GoP is a culprit for mumbai carnage only by virtue of its relationship with LeT. But thats not the case. If your base is Indian Media reports, blame them. Not my government.

 

[Stumper]

India threatening to intervene in Bangladesh internal security matter and mobilized military assets closed to Bangladesh border and you lecture us no to worry about your country India? Why shouldn't we have a good laugh at your naive suggestion???



And for Bangladeshi members, when Indians brings flimsy and baseless arguments only to distract and divert from truth, no amount of proof or reasoning would be matter. Indian will keeping coming back repeating same BS and circular logic. You can entertain Indian wish or just ignore them and get on with facts and real issues.

I'm amused. I'm sure your countrymen are more enlightened by your advice, not us.

 

[HK-47]

current state of the BDR people?are they functioning in full swing?are Indian troops amassed along our borders or what?

 

[idune]

Threat of direct intervention comes closer?

Special Correspondent

It is no more a threat perception. Now it seems to have become a real threat - India desires to go for direct intervention to strengthen "the Hasina government, which has a pro-India tilt".

The desire, as expressed by Indian foreign minister Pranab Mukharjee, has not provoked any response from Bangladesh foreign ministry. Could it be that the foreign office mandarins at Segunbagicha have conceded to the Indian intention?

The March 16 issue of Indian news magazine Outlook quoted Pranab Mukharjee disclosing at a close-door meeting of Congress leaders at New Delhi's Mavalankar Hall as saying: "I had to go out of my way to issue a stern warning to those trying to the Sheikh Hasina government in Bangladesh that if they continue with their attempts, India would not sit idle".

Does it portend a direct intervention in the internal affairs of Bangladesh? Is it a reminder of Sikkim annexation?

No doubt, as a big neighbour, India has some genuine reasons to be concerned about the happenings in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan or Nepal. But the experience of the peoples of neighbouring countries from the point of view of their stability, security and sovereignty has often been dangerous and destructive.

Indian media
Immediately after the BDR mutiny on February 24, some Indian media opted for provocation by linking certain political groups with Pakistani intelligence service. After the arrest of prime suspect Towhid, a Deputy Assistant Director of BDR, the Indian media was the first to give him identity as a "Shibir worker" and later as a "Jamaat worker" in spite of the fact that he joined BDR after completion of school final examination when Chhatra Shibir was not born in the country and Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh was not launched.
Meanwhile, some Indian intellectuals and intelligence officials are engaged in a sustained campaign against Bangladesh. One of them, Hiranmay Karlekar, who branded Bangladesh as the next Afghanistan, made specific allegations against senior army officials by name.
In an article in The Tribune ( March 3, 2008) he analysed Bangladesh Army Chief General Moeen's visit to India to make a comment that Bangladesh Army "has a chequered history of vicious internal conflicts".
According to Karlekar, "General Moeen is not known to be hostile to India. However, Maj-Gen Syed Fatemi Ahmed Rumi, General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the 66th Division, who visited India with him, was known as a loyalist of Khaleda Zia, whose second tenure as Prime Minister"
He further added: "Lt.-Gen. Jahangir Alam Khan Chowdhury, an India-hater known chiefly for his vicious verbal attacks on this country [India] made while he, then a Maj-General, was the Director-General of the Bangladesh Rifles." Karlekar also picked up rumours to identify Jamaat loyalists in the DGFI and the Army. He mentioned categorically that Brig-Gen A.T.M. Amin and Brig-Gen Chowdhury Fazlul Bari were close to the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh (JeIB). He also pointed his finger at Lt Gen Mohammad Aminul Karim who was appointed Military Secretary to President Dr Iajuddin Ahmed.

Sustained campaign
Sustained campaign against Bangladesh may be traced in another article published in The Tribune on August 5, 2006. The writer of the article Selig S. Harrison, a former South Asia bureau chief of The Washington Post, identified "Jamaat inroads in the government security machinery at all levels, starting with Home Secretary Muhammad Omar Farooq, widely regarded as close to the Jamaat, have opened the way for suicide bombings, political assassinations, harassment of the Hindu minority, and an unchecked influx of funds from Islamic charities in Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf to Jamaat-oriented madrassas (religious schools) that in some cases are fronts for terrorist activity."
The Tribune in its article, "Bangladesh-new hub for terrorism", continued further to describe the future prospects in Bangladesh thus: "...especially alarming is that the Jamaat and its allies appear to be penetrating the higher ranks of the armed forces".
Harrison like Hironmoy Karleker attributed Jamaat sympathies to Maj. Gen. Mohammed Aminul Karim, the then military secretary to President Iajuddin Ahmed, and to Brig. Gen. A.T.M. Amin, director of the Armed Forces Intelligence anti-terrorism bureau. Harrison' s article was published in The Washington Post on August 12, 2006 with a different headline "A New Hub for Terrorism? In Bangladesh, an Islamic Movement With Al-Qaeda Ties Is on the Rise"
One can try to get the missing links now that Brigadier General Amin and Brigadier General Bari both have been removed from DGFI. This not to be confused with another Brigadier General Bari who was killed in BDR mutiny. The forced retirement of two generals - Maj Gen. Syed Fatemi Ahmed Rumi and Lt Gen Aminul Karim - also may also be linked to Indian desires as ventilated.

HOLIDAY > FRONT PAGE

 

[idune]

Re-post

Identical statements against Bangladesh armed forces. One from PM Sheikh Hasina's son Sajeeb Wazed Joy and another is from RAW spy master B. Raman.

--------------------------
As in the case of the Bangladeshi Army, in the case of the BDR too, many of the recruits at the lower levels come from the villages and quite a few of them are products of the mushrooming madrasas across the country funded by money from SaudiArabia, Kuwait and Pakistan.

B Raman, RAW spy master

---------------------------

Stemming the Rise of Islamic Extremism in Bangladesh

Islamic extremism is also on the rise in Bangladesh because of the growing numbers of Islamists in the military. The Islamists cleverly began growing their numbers within the Army by training for the Army Entrance Exams at madrassas. This madrassa training was necessary because of the relative difficulty associated with passing these exams. The military is attractive because of both its respected status and its high employment opportunities in a country where unemployment ranges from 20 percent to 30 percent for younger males. High demand for military posts has resulted in an entrance exam designed to limit the number of recruits. Before this madrassa Entrance Exam campaign, only 5 percent of military recruits came from madrasses in 2001. By 2006, at the end of the BNP’s reign, madrassas supplied nearly 35 percent of the Army recruits. In a country that has seen four military coup d’états in its short 37 year history, the astronomical growth of Islamists in the military is troubling to say the least accommodation .

Since madrassas are educational institutions within the country, they are under the purview of the country’s educational ministry. While almost all funding for these institutions comes from private donors in Saudi Arabia, there is no statute against their regulation by proper national authorities.

Sajeeb Wazed Joy, Son and Advisor to PM Sheikh Hasina

 

[Stumper]

Or maybe you would like to read this :

Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI), Extremist Group, Bangladesh, South Asia Terrorism Portal

Is this circumstantial evidence that HUJI is the one to gain from dethroning AL.

 

[idune]

Bangladesh mutiny: India moves more troops to WB

4 Mar 2009, 0405 hrs IST, TNN

NEW DELHI: India has airlifted "elements'' of its para-brigade based in Agra to Kalaikunda in West Bengal to deal with any contingency which arises
due to the internal turmoil in Bangladesh.

Sources said over a battalion strength (over 1,000 soldiers) of the 50 Independent Parachute Brigade was moved on Sunday from Agra to Kalaikunda, which has a large IAF base.

Bangladesh mutiny: India moves more troops to WB - India - The Times of India

 

[idune]

Proof of this came during a closed-door meeting of a motley group of about 50 Congress leaders hailing from different states earlier this week. Addressing them in the capital’s Mavalankar Hall, foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee disclosed a conspiracy was afoot to destabilise the elected governments in Bangladesh and Pakistan. He let out a hitherto unknown fact to the audience: "I had to go out of my way to issue a stern warning to those trying to destabilise the Sheikh Hasina government in Bangladesh that if they continued with their attempts, then India would not sit idle." In other words, New Delhi had conveyed it was willing to take counter-measures in the Great Game, including the possibility of direct intervention.

(Threat of Indian intervention to save Indian political stooges in Bangladesh)

.
.
A senior diplomat told Outlook that New Delhi advised Hasina and the Bangladesh army to tread cautiously and avoid creating a 1975-like situation, when most members of the country’s founder Mujibur Rahman’s family were gunned down. That was perhaps the reason why Hasina announced general amnesty to secure the surrender of BDR mutineers.

(creating safe passage for Indian commando assets who committed massacre)

http://outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20090316&fname=Cover+Story&sid=1&pn=2

 

[Stumper]

Proof of this came during a closed-door meeting of a motley group of about 50 Congress leaders hailing from different states earlier this week. Addressing them in the capital’s Mavalankar Hall, foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee disclosed a conspiracy was afoot to destabilise the elected governments in Bangladesh and Pakistan. He let out a hitherto unknown fact to the audience: "I had to go out of my way to issue a stern warning to those trying to destabilise the Sheikh Hasina government in Bangladesh that if they continued with their attempts, then India would not sit idle." In other words, New Delhi had conveyed it was willing to take counter-measures in the Great Game, including the possibility of direct intervention.

(Threat of Indian intervention to save Indian political stooges in Bangladesh)

.
A senior diplomat told Outlook that New Delhi advised Hasina and the Bangladesh army to tread cautiously and avoid creating a 1975-like situation, when most members of the country’s founder Mujibur Rahman’s family were gunned down. That was perhaps the reason why Hasina announced general amnesty to secure the surrender of BDR mutineers.

(creating safe passage for Indian commando assets who committed massacre)

http://outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20090316&fname=Cover+Story&sid=1&pn=2

Amnesty means we dont prosecute you. Safe passage means you go away from place of crime. Are they same?

 

[idune]

Horrendous discovery

Friday March 6, 2009

All that being part of history now, one wonders how it all happened, who did it, and why?
While that is precisely the undertaking of the investigators who will unearth the real intent of the carnage and identify the culprits, the incident demonstrates a serious lapse in military intelligence. The following facts, gathered from over a dozen of reliable sources, further corroborate that fact.

One: Investigators have learnt that a team of 25 trained foreign commandos entered Bangladesh illegally from India through various bordering areas on or within January 11, 2009. They were received and sheltered in Dhaka by individuals working under cover as diplomats.

Two: At the same time, a small group of 10-12 BDR members, including two Deputy Assistant Directors (DADs), were recruited as the internal moles and coordinators to provide precise information to the foreign team via three senior political leaders of the country until the hours of the carnage.

Three: The occasion for the operation was chosen carefully to ensure availability of all senior BDR officers who had gathered in Pilkhana for the annual BDR day celebration. Over 3,000 extra troops also came to Pilkhana for various administrative duties as well as to launch a tattoo show for which the BDR has been historically famous.

Four: The mutiny was slated for February 24, while the PM was in Pilkhana to take salute in the BDR day parade. In consideration of likely collateral harm to the political personalities and other dignitaries who accompanied the PM, the date was changed. However, final coordination and reconnaissance were done that day by some guests who attended the parade, masquerading as VIPs.

Five: Upon conclusion of final reconnaissance, at about 10.30 PM, on February 24, a segment of the foreign killing squad and over 25 BDR soldiers - plus three young - leading politicians of the country - met in a briefing in one of suburban Dhaka residences. The precise timing of the operation and the responsibilities of each small group were decided in that meeting.

Six: As per plan, one of the DADs ensured that members of the BDR cell would be posted on duty on gate number 4 that morning when the DG would sit for the slated Darbar in the Darbar hall.

Seven: On February 25, the D-day, the foreign commando team entered the Pilkhana compound through gate number 4, at 8.10 AM, using a BDR vehicle (Bedford) which the designated DAD had arranged to send for them about an hour ago. Dressed in sports gear (long camouflage trouser, vest, and PT shoe) - in order to be able to quickly change into civil clothes while fleeing after the massacre - the killers entered the Pilkhana compound undetected.

Eight: The BDR vehicle that carried the killers was followed by an ash-colour pick up van which carried initially used arms and ammunition from outside. In order to begin the massacre, one of the Bengali speaking commandos, armed, was ordered to enter the Darbar hall without permission to engage the DG into a provoking altercation.

Nine: Once the DG was shot, other officers, all unarmed, tried to obstruct the lone killer. Within seconds, the action group of the killer team entered the Darbar hall and started killing other officers while the cover up group cordoned the area.

Ten: In the following hours, part B of the mission began by inducting other troops into the team under gun point and the armoury - as well as the intelligence equipments - was looted. The foreign killers and their local henchmen used BDR soldiers on gunpoint to show the locations of other officers, their families, and the offices where vital national security documents remained preserved. Highly classified border security maps, troop deployment plan and initial action plan, etc. were taken away by the foreign commandos.

Eleven: Eyewitnesses say, two of the last foreign commandos - one male and one female - left the BDR compound in the afternoon on February 26, following the surrendering of arms by BDR members who knew nothing about the mutiny even a minute before. These two are presumed to be the leaders of the foreign commando team.

None of the above could have been materialized if the two main national intelligence outfits of the country (DGFI and NSI) have had prior clues about what was being conspired to destroy the armed forces of the country. The foreign commandos took control of BDR's own intelligence outfit, RSU, at the initial stage and used RSU equipments to communicate among themselves during the mutiny. The commanding officer of RSU too was assassinated during the carnage.
That aside, there were other intelligence lapses during the mutiny. In the more than 30 hours while the mutiny prolonged, neither the NSI, nor the DGFI, had any clue about who were being shot at and what exactly went on inside. They also ignored SMS messages from fellow officers, on ground that there was no order from the government to do anything.
In reality, these two agencies were too busy, as they often are, in ensuring security to the VVIPs and VIPs; not the country and its vital institutions that they are oath-bound and mandated to serve and protect.

HOLIDAY: Friday, March 20, 2009

 

[Stumper]

OMG.....FBI, are you listening.

 

[KaranArjun]

Bangladesh: Return of the Razakars?

BHASKAR ROY

IN A decision reminiscent of her late assassinated father President Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh Prime Minister Shiekh Hasina came out to inform the nation on February 27 that the mutiny by junior officers of the Bangladesh rifles (BDR) on the morning of February 25 at the force’s headquarters was a premeditated conspiracy. She warned that the powers behind this conspiracy were not going to sit by quietly.

There were three attempts on Sk. Hasina’s life by Islamic terrorists, especially the Harkat-ul-Jihad Al-Islamic (HUJI) Commander Mufti Hannan, now under trial for murder and attempted murder. Hannan’s confessions implicated senior BNP ministers and members of Parliament including ministers Altaf Hossain Choudhury and Ruhul Quddus Talukdar Dulu. In the last attack in April 2004 in Dhaka, Sk. Hasina was left with a permanent injury. From behind the scenes, the Jamaat-e-Islami (JEI) have been instrumental is raising these Islamic terrorists through various means including establishing funding links with NGOs involved with Osama bin Laden and his network.

After the BDR revolt, the threat perception to Sk. Hasina’s life has become acute. Have the anti-liberation forces declared open season on a Bangladesh that triumphed over these forces in the December 2008 election and moved the country back to the secular, liberal and democratic values under the Awami League government?

Sk. Hasina may have had a providential escape. On February 24, she was at the BDR headquarters in Dhaka’s Peelkhana area to address the raising day of the force. In her speech she spoke about her government’s commitment to development, asked the BDR to stop smuggling in the interest of the economy, and emphasized that no one would be allowed to use Bangladesh’s soil as a “spring board” for terrorism against any other country. She also underscored that she wanted to have friendly relations with neighbours.

The points made by the Prime Minister were sharp and specific, true to Awami League’s election manifesto, and articulated by Sk. Hasina and her ministers elsewhere in the recent past. Although in her speech at the BDR headquarters she did not mention her decision to hold trial of the 1971 war criminals, and the killers of her father and senior Awami leaguers in 1975, this point had already been widely made.

Around two weeks back, Pakistan’s Special Envoy Pervez Ispahani came to Dhaka and tried to persuade Sk. Hasina and Foreign Minister Dr. Dipu Moni that this was not the right time to try war criminals and the past may as well be buried. He did not succeed in his mission. Ispahani also met opposition leaders including BNP Chairperson and former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, and some JEI leaders.

It would seem to defy logic why the Pakistani government would send a Special Envoy at this time to intercede in a highly emotional issue of the Bangladeshis. The Pakistani civilian government headed by President Asif Ali Zardari is too busy trying to work on more occupying and highly important issues of terrorism, Afghanistan, the US pressures and the Mumbai terrorist attack among other challenges. Given Zardari’s political interests and proclivities, he could be hardly bothered about what is happening in Bangladesh at the moment. The only influential group in Pakistan which has an enduring interest in Bangladesh is the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and the Pak army.

For the large majority of the Bangladeshi people including those among the post 1971 and 1975 generations, the carnage of the liberation war is still a raw wound. Around 3 million Bengalis were killed and around three hundred thousand women raped by the Pakistani army and their Bangladeshi collaborators. A closure to this tragedy demands appropriate punishment to those Bangladeshi war criminals who are still around – people like former Amir of the JEI Golam Azam, current Amir of JEI Matiur Rahman Nizami, Secretary General of the JEI Ali Ahsan Mujahid, Khaleda Zia’s advisors Salauddin Quader Choudhury and Harris Choudhury and a host of others.

Not very well publicized is the fact that a list of war criminals prepared by the Sector Commanders Forum (a group of freedom fighter officers) has the name of twelve Pakistani army senior officers directly involved in the 1971 killing and rape of civilians. That would explain the Pakistani Special Envoy’s visit to Dhaka. This has apparently rattled the ISI. Conviction of the war criminals and the assassins of Sk. Mujibur Rahman could raise an anti-Pakistani wave in Bangladesh and severely impact the ISI’s allies the BNP and the JEI. Cleansing of the Bangladesh Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI), the ISI alter-ego and facilitator, already set in motion by Sk. Hasina with the assistance of Gen. Moeen would seriously impact the Pakistani army’s prestige and open up human rights issues. Kampuchea’s (Cambodia’s) war criminals are being tried and sentenced even today. Even Nazi Germany’s perpetrators of the holocaust have been tracked down and dealt with. Serbian war criminals like Radovan Karadic are being accounted for. Therefore, there is every justification to bring to a conclusion the trial of the 1971 war criminals and the August 15, 1975 assassins and conspirators of Sk. Mujibur Rahman and his family, and top Awami League leaders in jail in November, the same year.

Once these cases start unravelling, they are unlikely to stop there. Trial of Mujibur Rahman killers will render the assassination of a head of State an act of treason. Questions would be asked about who were responsible to send these killers -army officers on foreign assignments. Who instigated the 1976 mutiny assassinating army Chief Khaled Musharraf? Late President Ziaur-Rahman’s name will figure in these acts boldly along with that of his associates. Attempted coup against Gen. Moeen on January 7, 2007, by the NSI Chief Maj.Gen. Rezakul Haider may also come up for review. All these if only Sk. Hasina and Gen. Moeen continue to remain in power and in control.

Two things need to be examined carefully to look for clues to the BDR mutiny. First is the scale, ferocity and ruthlessness of the killings of the officers and their families. The men were shot and bayoneted, and in many cases their bodies mutilated. The women were mostly raped and killed. The ten-year old daughter of an army officer was similarly raped and killed. Even children of officers inside the huge complex were not spared. BDR Chief Shakil Ahmed’s son and daughter escaped because they were away in school. Some dead bodies were put in a sewer and flooded down to the Buriganga river. Three mass graves were discovered subsequently. The manner of these horrendous acts reminded one of the 1971 killings by the Pak army and their Bengali collaborators.

Next, was the assassination of an entire corps of army officers in the BDR. Many were Moeen appointees including Shakil Ahmed whose dead body and that of his wife’s were discovered in the mass graves. Others may have been politically neutral or even BNP-JEI supporters. But none were spared. The army stands weakened, but very angry.

A very important pointer not widely mentioned in the press is the fact that after the mutiny started on February 25 morning, the JEI took out a couple of processions from old Dhaka, marching towards the BDR headquarters shouting the slogan “BDR janata bhai-bhai, Moeen er phansi chai” (BDR and the people are brothers, but we want Gen. Moeen hanged).

It must also be recalled that when a delegation of 14 BDR personnel went to meet Sk. Hasina to negotiate, they told her no officer was killed and that Maj.Gen. Shakil Ahmed who was being held hostage did not have a scratch on his body.

In fact, the killings had been done by that time. So why the subterfuge? The only reason would be they were expecting support to come from some other quarters, and that would be only from some sections of the army. That did not happen due to some reasons, but it could have happened.

In July, 2007 a mini coup was attempted against Gen. Moeen inside the Dhaka cantonment. Some 18 officers and other ranks were killed, and many others quietly discharged. Some involvement of Lt.Gen. Masuddin Choudhury was found. He was subsequently eased out and is currently serving as Bangladesh’s Ambassador to Australia.

The brain and finances behind the coup attempt is rumoured to have been Salauddin Quader Choudhury (SQC), Prime Minister Khaleda Zia’s advisor during the 2001-2006 BNP-JEI government. A shipping magnetic from the port city of Chittagong, his close links to the Pak army and the ISI goes back to 1971. One of his ships smuggled in ten truck loads of deadly arms and ammunition for the Assamese militants, the ULFA, in 2004. The consignment was accidentally interdicted by a police officer, but the officer was arrested and the case covered up by the BNP-JEI government. JEI Amir Matiur Rahman Nizami was also involved. That case is being reopened by the Sk. Hasina government.

The conspirators behind the BDR are certainly very concerned with Sk. Hasina’s security priorities especially on the terrorism front. If implemented thoroughly, they would uproot Pakistani intelligence and anti-India terrorism and militant support network in Bangladesh built assiduously from 1975 with the able assistance of state actors. This would be a defeat of the Pak army’s and ISI’s low intensity warfare against India from the east. The new Bangladesh Prime Minister may have taken up too many issues too soon. But for her, time is of essence to set history right, and establish greater co-operation with neighbours for economic development. Setting history right will bring peace and stability. Her father left things half done, trusting in people. The same people betrayed that trust and Sk. Mujib paid with his life.

The first target, however, appears to be the army Chief Gen. Moeen U. Ahmed. The BNP-JEI government made him the army Chief. His main credentials for the job was his tenure of about five years in Pakistan as Bangladesh’s Defence Advisor. But eventually he turned against his perceived mentors for their policies and his fall-out with the Zia family. He is also seen as the main force to break the BNP, expose the JEI and offer a hand of friendship to India. He is also seen on the hand behind Sk. Hasina’s power.

But Moeen is not out of the woods by a long chance. Although his insistence on strong show of force against BDR mutineers broke their back bone, and may have put the BNP-JEI influence in the army on the back foot, it may be temporary. Knowledgeable sources in Bangladesh say that the first battle may have been won by Moeen, but the war is yet to be fought.

It is an ideological and historical war, with an ideology kept burning and nourished from abroad. The tension in Bangladesh, especially Dhaka, is palpable. The country has entered an extended period of uncertainty. No points for guessing the game. #

 

[TopCat]

Amnesty means we dont prosecute you. Safe passage means you go away from place of crime. Are they same?

No they are not same but both of them were entertained to the mutineers..