The army headquarters yesterday urged the media to be more responsible while reporting on sensitive issues like the BDR carnage in Pilkhana.
A press release signed by Lt Col Kazi Mohammad Kabirul Islam, director of the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR), said the armed forces formed an enquiry committee to probe the barbaric killings of army officials and the probe report was handed over to the chief of the armed forces on May 10.
The press release reads: even though the armed forces did not disclose any information about the report, different media have been continuing to run misleading and fictitious reports on such a nationally sensitive issue, which raises concern and confusions.
Source: http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=89011#
--- In alochona@yahoogroups.com, Isha Khan <bd_mailer@...> wrote:
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> AL questions army’s probe report on BDR rebellion
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> The ruling Awami League on Sunday questioned the quality of the investigation report of the army on the February 25-26 rebellion at the Bangladesh Rifles headquarters in Dhaka, saying that the report carried by the press, if true, seemed to be motivated and ‘an attempt to hide the truth.’
> Â Â Â The party also referred to circumstantial evidence which, it said, showed there were militant links to the Pilkhana carnage but the report ignored the fact.
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> Â Â Â The carnage left 74 people dead, including 57 army officers.
>    The 20-member army probe committee headed by Lt Gen Jahangir Alam Chowdhury submitted the report to army chief General Moeen U Ahmed on May 11. The report said the army’s investigation did not find any militant links and politics to the carnage and identified a dozen reasons, including soldiers’ grievances, for the rebellion.
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>    Speaking at a discussion, Awami League’s spokesperson Syed Ashraful Islam, also LGRD and cooperatives minister, said on Sunday that the army’s probe report, as published by a section of the press, was an incomplete report. Awami Juba League, associate body of the AL, organised the discussion at the auditorium of the Institution of Engineers marking the 28th homecoming day of AL chief Sheikh Hasina.
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>    Hasina returned home on May 17 in 1981 from exile during the rule of Major General Ziaur Rahman after she had been elected the AL president unanimously in the party council.‘It appears from news reports carried by a section of the press that the army probe committee’s report on the BDR rebellion is incomplete and an attempt to put up a smokescreen in order to hide the truth about the tragedy,’ Ashraf said.
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> Â Â Â He said the report did not mention who were the perpetrators, who could be the beneficiaries and what was their motive. The report also avoids mentioning who had helped the BDR soldiers flee by boats, he said.
>    ‘There is nothing in the report about what might have happened had the army gone into action at Pilkhana to quell the rebellion and what the situation would have been at the border outposts…The report is silent about the fact that the country was on the brink of a civil war following the carnage,’ said Ashraf.
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> Â Â Â Inter-Service Public Relations Department assistant director Lieutenant Commander SM Salauddin declined comments on the issue.
>    When asked on Sunday evening, he told New Age, ‘The army’s international probe body had submitted its report to the army chief. We cannot make any comments on the issue, as we have neither got the report nor any findings of the probe body.’
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>    Addressing the AJL’s programme, Ashraft also said the government had information that a fund of Taka 15 crore had been raised by a certain quarter and the money would be spent in spreading falsehood through TV talk-shows about the BDR rebellion in order to tarnish the government’s image.
>    ‘The government has reports that people of their [that quarter] choice will be sent to the TV talk-shows after the government’s probe committee submits its report on the BDR rebellion, to spread canards against the government…,’ he said.
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> Â Â Â Addressing the discussion, Awami League presidium member Matia Chowdhury alleged that a vested quarter was trying to put up a smokescreen to mislead the people by false propaganda over the BDR rebellion, which, she said, prime minister Sheikh Hasina had tackled deftly and quelled it peacefully without further casualties.
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>    ‘A vested quarter is trying to implicate some leaders of Awami League and Juba League in the [BDR] incident by spreading falsehood but the people have rejected their claims as Sheikh Hasina’s capable and farsighted leadership in tackling the situation has been hailed nationally and internationally,’ she said.
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>    Matia, also agriculture minister, asked who were the people who, with ash- yellow- and orange-coloured handkerchiefs tied around their mouths, were active inside the BDR headquarters during the carnage. ‘The colours are usually used by a particular militant outfit,’ she said and urged party leaders and activists to guard against the conspiracies against the government.
> Â Â Â Juba League chairman Jahangir Kabir Nanak presided over the discussion addressed, among others, by journalist Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury, former vice-chancellor of Dhaka University professor AK Azad Chowdhury and Juba League general secretary Mirza Azam.
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> Â Â Â In the evening, central leaders of the Awami League met Sheikh Hasina at her official residence Jamuna and presented her with bouquets to mark the day.
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> http://www.newagebd.com/2009/may/18/front.html
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> http://www.ittefaq.com/content/2009/05/18/news0019.htm
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