[ALOCHONA] Minister's premature comments could prove costly for the nation

Editorial Minister's premature comments could prove costly for the nation   WE FIND extremely disturbing the repeated utterances by the commerce minister, Faruk Khan, with regard to who or which groups were behind the massacre at the Bangladesh Rifles headquarters on February 25 and 26. Faruk, who has been put in charge of coordinating the different investigations that are being carried out into the massacre, stated on March 12 that the investigations had found links between the massacre and the Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh, a banned Islamist organisation.   Then, on March 14, the minister said the investigations had found that a vested interest group which 'wants to make this country a failed state and is always involved in anti-state activities' was behind the BDR rebellion and the subsequent massacre. Again on March 16, the minister commented that some people with links to the BDR massacre 'in order to save themselves' were trying to cover up those who were directly involved in the killings.    We are not in a position to comment on the veracity or the validity of the minister's claims, given that we are not privy to the findings and deliberations of the different sets of investigators. If, for example, Jamaatul Mujahideen is actually found to have been linked to the massacre, this would be an extremely serious revelation that would have to be tackled by the government.   Whoever was behind this tragedy must not only be correctly identified but they must also be brought to justice. Be that as it may, at a time when several investigations are ongoing into the BDR tragedy, the repeated comments of the commerce minister are not only inappropriate and irresponsible but could discredit the investigations themselves. After all, if the investigation reports do mention links to the groups that the minister has already spoken about on more occasions than one, questions may be asked whether the investigations were completely neutral and objective or whether they were manipulated in any way to tally with the minister's account. Leaving open such room for controversy is ill-conceived and unwise.    Moreover, the minister's utterances have serious implications for the country's larger economic, political and diplomatic interests. If his comments were to be proved unfounded by the eventual findings of the investigations, the damage these would have done would be beyond repair. If the final reports of the investigations vindicate the minister's statements, the government will have to tackle the situation that will arise as a result of those findings. However, making such comments before the final reports are submitted and made public can only add fear and anxiety at a time when the government needs to build back public confidence. It is not surprising that several ministers of the government have tried to backtrack from the commerce minister's statements in the last few days, and on Monday the law minister, Shafiq Ahmed, stated that accusing anybody before a full investigation report is available would not be 'proper'.    However, the commerce minister seemed undeterred. In these circumstances, we urge the prime minister to instruct the commerce minister to reserve his comments until the investigations are complete and full picture can be presented to the people through the publication of the investigation report.   http://www.newagebd.com/2009/mar/19/edit.html   Daily Shamokal:   http://www.shamokal.com/details.php?nid=106168   http://www.shamokal.com/details.php?nid=106184   http://www.shamokal.com/details.php?nid=106185   New Age:   Intelligence agencies deny link of JMB to BDR carnage http://nation.ittefaq.com/issues/2009/03/18/news0353.htm

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