The crises started on February 25 morning at the BDR Headquarters with nobody knowing or even trying to know, what actually was happening at the BDR Headquarters. It was nothing but a genocide, which continued with barbaric brutality till late February 26 evening. Government's crises management mode was in complete disarray with no direction and no set conflict management policy. Untrained and politically motivated conflict managers were put to test in a situation, which demanded a far more seasoned, coherent and multilevel conflict management approach/policy having proper application of both carrot and stick.
Failure struck the conflict managers of the Government right from the very beginning. They totally failed to fathom the depth and brutality of the crises. They sportingly advised the Government to grant General Amnesty with no set guideline or policy, which has been the norm in all general amnesties given in the past in different countries of the World. They even failed to identify the leader or leaders of this rebellion and sportingly chose a group of 14 people so called leaders, of this rebellion and brought them to no less a person but the PM and advised the Prime Minister to grant them a blanket general amnesty. It seems the general amnesty had no effect on the mutineers, because they were not in need of it at all. The crises continued and the mutineers went ahead, with their plans and killing spree. Precious time was wasted with no positive result and the night was allowed to set in on the barbaric day of 25th February.
The Home Minister joined in and tried to do her best. The mutineers made a joke out of her by staging mock arms surrender in the middle of the night and allowed her to rescue a few terrified hapless families. The Home Minister also failed to understand the breadth and depth of the crises, though she was sucked into it with no apparent knowledge of what has actually happening. The Home Minister was kind to grant the mutineers the umbrella of her motherhood, but the mutineers cruelly used it to further their brutal mission through the dark night and into the next day. The Home Minister made the mistake of believing the mutineers and delaying the desired tough action necessary in such circumstances.
The mutineers tried to sow the seed of serious misunderstanding into the minds of the people, media and the governing political forces by making it look like a dispute against oppression by their officers, poor pay and so called corruption of their superiors. The media played into the hands of the mutineers in the first hours of the mutiny along with some general people, who participated reportedly in some demonstrations of support for the mutineers. Somehow the officers of the armed forces, who command the BDR, were painted as corrupt and participants in the so called corruption in the Dal Bhat project of BDR after the changeover of 1/11. Strangely the demands of the mutineers kept on escalating as the hours passed and the conflict managers of the Government were made to face a situation where mutineers changed the position of the "goal post" continuously.
The plans of the mutineers included pitting the newly elected Government against the Army, which it seemed the Government realized belatedly, but in the meantime the damage was already done. The crises of "no confidence" among the rank and file of the Army spread rapidly as the TV channels showed dead and mutilated bodies of Army Officers popping up from unceremonious places like drains, manholes and sewer outlets on February 26th evening. As the time ticked by, even by early Friday morning (February 27), the crises managers of the Government failed miserably in even assuming that the missing Army Officers and their families might be dead or close to death and something must be done to launch a rescue and recover operation.
Common sense dawned on the crises managers and finally the Government reluctantly allowed the Army to take charge of the recovery operation as there was nothing left to rescue by then. Recovery operation is ongoing and it seems that it will be painfully long for all concerned specially the affected families. Meantime the anger the dead bodies have generated is here to stay for as long as memory stays. Bangladesh Government must immediately grant all the dead on duty officers due honor of shaheeds and shower them posthumously with honors due to them and take steps to help the families financially and materially to recover from this untimely tragedy.. A few positive steps by the Government have been announced already.
This crisis demands that the truth should be unearthed, no matter how bitter it is. Questions needs to be answered, especially, the motives and patrons of the killings which must not overlook the escape mechanism, which was activated, to allow the mutineers to escape. In some circles the failure of the Intelligence Agencies is being highlighted, but nobody is talking about the politicization of not only the Intelligence Agencies, but all Institutions of State in the past, which was (and currently being) deliberately politicized, with the change of each Government to serve the interest of the party in power. All and sundry specially the newly elected Government must take steps and set the ball rolling to keep all institutions and organizations of State above politics and only merit should be the consideration of promotion. State and the organs of State are entities meant to serve the people and not the people in power.
There are, lot of mysteries related to this mutiny, which must be addressed sooner or later, the prime one being the escape of the mutineers. People are asking how the mutineers managed to escape and who made it possible? Why the whole of BDR was kept in complete darkness on February 26/27 night.
People will ask a lot of questions and they need answers and the Government must understand that the answers are needed and it is the Government, which should answer them. Blame should be put on the shoulders responsible and according to the dictum of democracy the crises managers should duly take responsibility of their failures and resign from the Government. It is a tragedy, which has resulted into volcanic eruptions of emotions and rage among the affected and will continue to simmer for long time to come. There is no escape for the Government from taking responsibilities a democratic Government should take in such circumstances and in this regard the Government can take lessons from working democracies in different parts of the World.
The Government has no time to waste in taking steps to judge the guilty and judge them fairly and impartially. Here time is of essence as it will help cool down emotions. The judgment process should not be politicized and the Government should not hesitate to point fingers at the guilty even if they belong to their own.
In the past politicization has nipped in the bud the judgment process, of crimes causing deaths and destruction, because governments shamefully acted as the Government of the political parties and not of the people. The Awami League of Sheikh Hasina must remember that she is the Honorable Prime Minister of the People of Bangladesh and not the Awami League. Questions are being asked and will be asked if the right answers are not found. We don't want to ask all the questions here, because we believe that this Government of the people is capable of asking the desired questions and answering those itself. That is what the people who voted for this Government expects it to do -- And the people who did not vote for this Government, also expect the same from it.
Postmortem of 1/11 has been initiated by the journo-intellectual and econo-political machine. Honorable personalities in parliament vocally raised post 1/11 issues. Time and history will hold its own postmortem at the time of its own choosing. Postmortem does not mean wholesale prosecution of the total military forces. People of the country in general expect that civilian and military leaders of 1/11 Rule will come forward and tell the Nation their side of the story.
Corruption is another cancerous national issue, which is eating into the vitals organs of the country. The Government in power is always honest and everybody else especially the opposition is corrupt! Sadly the mutineers raised the corruption issue of the Army officers to gain the sympathy of the Government, people and media and successfully diverted the attention of the crises managers from the genocide, which they were perpetrating inside BDR Headquarters.
This was the first time in the history of Bangladesh that corruption was used as a cover to massacre many people in such a short time. But fact is that those criminals have killed a group of honest, sincere and highly professional officers of the Army.
Successive governments have failed to address the issue of corruption effectively. Corruption cannot be eliminated completely, but it can definitely be minimized and controlled. Majority of the Bangladeshi People live below the poverty line and they don't like to see a few selected and elected of their own brethrens enjoying lavish life earned through corrupt means. People in general hope that the present Government will initiate steps to control corruption and not to expand or nurse it.
The sane are wondering, why this crises was engineered, at this critical time, when the democratically elected Government has hardly ensconced itself in the seats of power. Is it an attempt to drive the Government to fail or the country to fail? Neither is desired or welcome and all must act untidily to resist the designs of the conspirators. We hope and pray that this crisis will encourage the elected Government to unite and not divide the nation at this critical time.