The BDR carnage and intelligence failure
Major General M.A. Halim psc (Retd)
THE tragic incidents that took place in Pilkhana on 25th of Feb 2009, where
fifty-eight army officers were brutally killed, was one of the most
heinous crimes beyond anybody's comprehension. Such brutal and
merciless killings are very seldom.
We know of the carnage of cruel and barbaric rulers and kings in the past, we also know the atrocity of Pakistani soldiers during our Liberation War, but the scale is not even near to what these mutineers have done to our beloved officers who lived through thick and thin with their troops. They not only killed the officers they went further to mutilate the dead bodies
and disposed the bodies most unceremoniously in drains and gutters.
The
initial media reporting was in support of mutineers. They were
telecasting mutineers upholding the genuineness of the mutiny, for they
have enormous grievance against Army officers deputed to BDR. Our media
failed to give the real situation of Pilkhana whereas people got news
of what was actually happening through international media. What were
their grievances? Were these grievances genuine? Did they really want
to solve the problems? If they really wanted to, they would have kept
the officers as hostages and gone for negotiation. But here in this
case no officer was held hostage, they killed all available officers in
Peelkhana and asked for negotiation. This was a fake negotiation only
to avoid punitive action for unpardonable offences they already
committed.
The nature and the characteristics of mutiny is that
the mutineers always have a genuine and noble cause; they hardly
involve in such immoral act of killing and looting. This was a very
well coordinated plan with the aims primarily to demolish the force's
strength and unity and ultimately hit the very foundation of our
national security and sovereignty by weakening the country's defence.
The
BDR crisis was not handled very prudently. It is not known if the stock
of the situation regarding the safety of the officers and their family
were taken before declaration of general amnesty, although by then the
international media was telecasting updated BDR incident. Even after
the declaration of general amnesty on 25th Feb afternoon, the mutineers
did not lay down their arms, nor did they surrender. The public were
unaware of any deadline given to the mutineers to surrender. The
mutineers kept on carrying out the massacre till the morning of 27th
February. They, however, put an additional demand on the evening of
25th February that amnesty to be passed in National Assembly and a
gazette to be published to this effect.
In handling such crisis,
the handler must be intelligent, knowledgeable and capable of handling
such crisis. But here, in case of Pilkhana, an inexperienced person and
unfamiliar to such crisis was sent. Questions are being also raised
regarding intelligence. It can't be said surely whether it is an
intelligence failure or command failure. We have to wait till the
investigation is completed. But failure to gather intelligence is not a
new phenomenon, especially if it is ill equipped and ill organized. The
Twin Tower blast, Mumbai terrorist attack, 17 August grenade attack and
bomb blast in sixty-three districts of Bangladesh, all are cases of
intelligence failure. However, intelligence organizations will not have
any excuse if they fail to find out the cause and the perpetrators
after the occurrence of the incident. Immediately after the occurrence,
they should take control of the situation and try to identify the cause
and who are behind it. They should also carry out thorough study of
their failure and identify the weaknesses and take a remedial measure.
Three
committees so far have been formed to unearth the fact as to how it
happened and who were behind the planning and execution. Foreign
intelligence experts are also in the country to lend their expert hand
in the investigation process. These experts will not go beyond
providing technical assistance for obvious reason. Therefore, we have
to rely on our investigating team and keep our fingers crossed. It is
very important to find out who are the real perpetrators behind this
heinous act. The investigating team should be upright and they should
not have any weaknesses or emotions regarding the investigation. The
whole nation is eagerly waiting to know the outcome of the
investigation.
http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=84437
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