| BDR Massacre, few observations By M.N.ALI , UAE We mourn the tragic death of all those who lost their life in the subject carnage. This barbaric slaughter has overwhelmed the nation with utter shock and grief. The manner the politicians are conducting themselves is even more shocking and pathetic. Their effort to gain political millage out of the incident is disappointing , disgusting, utterly insensitive and as a whole insulting. Few observations which did not not have to happen : 1. PM is the Chief Executive. She bears the responsibility of the decesion she took. Only time will tell whether she was right or wrong. No need to make an issue out of this at this time ! 2. We are a multiparty Democracy. If we believed it was a "Mutiny" ( as initially said and publicised by all media ) , it was a concern for national security. I do not see anything wrong in Leader of the Opposition being consulted. If political parties like JSD ( with questionable role in 1975 nov for Sepoy Mutiny ) , Workers Party and Ershad could be consulted , why not Leader of the Opposition ? 3. Why an Investigation Committee ? What sort of Legal footing does it have ? Do they have the right to interrogate people in judicial custody ? Will they be able to recommend punishment ? Will they be able to accuse anybody without a legal cover ? Can they publish their report while the incident is being investigated as a result of a court case ? Will their finding be accepted by court ? What are the terms of reference of this committee ? Why not an Judicial Commission ?? I don't understand this. The original Investigation Committee did not even last for Three days ! Had to be Re-constituted. This tells us about the weaknesses in decision making process. 4. It's a pitty that the adminstration could not find "Negotiators" other than Nanak and Ajam . Now they say they don't even know who apart from Tauhid was part of the team that met PM !!! How was it possible ?? 5. The suspected "Rebels " successfully defended all entry points , we could not even send in highly trained Commandos we have ! But Thousands of "Rebels " including the killers fled without any seeming obstruction !!! Even as a lay man I can visualize that it' was very much possible to cordon off the Whole off Pilkhana. We had ELITE units like SWAT , RAB and Army Commandos, yet the killers managed to flee ! If the Army is unable to SEAL OFF Pilkhana, how will they protect the whole Country !!How did we allow it to happen ?? Beats me !! 6. There was no need to play Hide & Seek with DAD Tauhid. PM declared in the parliament on 1st March that Tauhid is under custody, RAB arrests him on 3rd March , and Tauhid says he was arrested on 27th Feb from inside Pilkhana. This piece of incorrect info may have already damaged the investigation process. It is possible that the PM may have been given wrong info. If it is so , we NEED to see some corrective action. Do we have moles in PM's inner circle ??? 7. The Army has formed their own " Court of Inquiry " as per prevailing Army Acts. It is headed by a Lt. General. Army is represented in the investigation committee formed by the govt by an Brig. General. I am still trying to understand the logics and implications . 8. It seems the Govt is in total disarray about the process of Trial . LGRD Minister and AL spokesman Ashraful Islam said that , new laws will be enacted to try the killers if needed. Lawers opine that New Law can not be given retrospective effect, so it's not an option. Law Minister said they can be tried using Army Acts by an Govt notification, Lawers disagree.. Army wants Special Tribunal preferebly using Army Acts. Lalbagh Police Station OC Mr. Kisha has filed cases using existing Criminal Pr laws. Court has accepted the cases and being investigated by CID. Where do we stand on it now ??? Can anybody answer ?? I think Govt needs to clarify for transparency's sake. 9. CID investigator ASP Mr. Kahhar Akand lost his job during BNP regime due his close association with AL. He got his job back after AL returned to power in 2009. Couldn't we find any other person who has little better profile than him ? I think the Govt led by AL didn't have to assign this person for this investigation of huge national interest. It just compromised acceptability. 10. Crisis Management is not a new concept. The subject massacre exposed that the govt does not have a "Crisis Management" team in place. Around Twenty negotiators got engaged on behalf of the govt. Didn't see an official Spokesperson. So we ended up hearing various different versions of official statement. It's not first time for AL to run govt, they should have been prepared well before taking over the power. 11. Various conspiracy theories are ripe. The intelligentia and talk show experts are repeating predictable accusations many times over. At times the apparent verdicts are hurting those who lost their dear ones. The other day Mr. Shahriar Kabir was on a talk show called Road To Democracy and he claimed that Shekh Hasina was able to put an end to the rebelion without any bloodshed ! Then he meekily added "further". Nasiruddinn Yousuf too claimed Rebelion came to an end without firing a single bullet after 12 pm on 25th due to Sheikh Hasina's efficiency !!!! Mean while AL's GS ( sitting but not allowed to function ) Mr. Abdul Jalil went one step further and proposed a " Thank You" proposal in the parliament to thank Sheikh Hasina for her excellent performance in handing the crisis, when whole nation was mourning and frantically searching for dead bodies of more than hundred !!!!!!! I found the acts of " Toil Mardon " insensitive and insulting for the whole nation. I am sure Sheikh Hasina does not care for these kind of " Toil Mordon". It's probably damaging her cause 12. Intelligence failure is not unprecedented in the world. We have seen many head of states or govt including that of USA was slained down with precision planning. USA could not prevent Oklahoma or 9/11. India could not protect Gandhi or stop Mumbai massacre. Pakistan could not save Benzir. And here in Bangladesh ? Sheikh Mujib, Zia got killed while in power. AL leader, former Army Chief & AL MP Gen. Shafiullah didn't have a clue about the killing of his leader by his own troops !!!! He had Military Intelligenge and DGFI reporting to him yet no hint to Sheikh Mujib. Similarly Zia loyal Ershad , the then Army Chief also claimed to have nil clue and Zia got killed. It's probably a co-incidence that both Gen. Shafiullah and Gen. Ershad are now Sheikh Hasina's close aids. " Intelligence" is a funny weapon. Bush had all the firmed up intelligence to prove IRAQ as a rouge state and for possesing and misusing WMDs. He razed Iraq to ground, pulled Saddam from hole & hanged him , bulldodged cities, towns and probably a million people, yet no sign of WMD !!! And he confessed Intelligence failure !! So the lesson is not to depend on intelligence too much. We were banking on "Din Bodol". But what we still see is " Sheikh Hasina PVT LTD." She needs to float the company public and sell shares to general investors not institutional investors. 13. We expected bit more maturity in handling the opposition. The comments from PM and other govt functionaries does not indicate much about "Din Bodol". Of course opposition will try all it's tricks including few dirty ones may be. It's AL and allies who will steer them to Din Bodol. After all it's mohajote's slogan. A quote from Gandhi is appropriate in this regard , he said " YOU must be the CHANGE you want to see in the world " M.N.ALI mohammad7770@gmail.com http://newsfrombangladesh.net/view.php?hidRecord=250876 |
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