SHEIKH MUJIB KILLING Shafiullah, HT Imam in line of fire Retired General K M Shafiullah, Bangladesh's first army chief and a great survivor of the sequence of bloody upheavals, is galloping in all directions like the Vicar of the Bray; firing bazookas in self-defence and accusing people left, right and the centre with charges that do not stand up to scrutiny. And the latest in joining the charade is H T Imam, the man who fled to India when the war of liberation began, became Cabinet Secretary after Bangladesh achieved independence, and was the prime figure to organise the oath-taking of Khandaker Moshtaque Ahmed who took over as president after the assassination of President Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on 15 August 1975. Interestingly, both are now widely accused of being somewhat privy to the murder of the Sheikh by their passivity and subsequent obedience to the power that was. Had they been courageous and assertive, the killing of the great leader could have perhaps been averted, their adversaries say. Interestingly again, both are now feigning innocence, with red herrings that their hands were virtually tied, that they were forced for fear of life or at gunpoint to do whatever those who had seized power had commanded them to do. Shafiullah sat pretty in his office and did nothing, and H T Imam, like a compliant public servant, saw that Khandaker Moshtaque becomes the next president. Interestingly yet again, the fates of these two skirters are dependent entirely on the mercy of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the supreme leader who is said to be holding more power and authority than did her father. The problem is if she accepts their plea that they acted under duress, then why should the others who had been in the same boat at the time be let off as well? But the governments in Bangladesh have always been strange ones. They do not fit into any book of logic, democracy, ethics and morality. If the two commit the same offence, one goes to jail and the other is honourably freed. Why? Because the umbilical cord factor comes instantly into play. Shafiullah is clearly in the line of fire as is Imam. But the former army chief would probably need more compassion from Hasina to wriggle out than would H T Imam. His prime accuser is none other than Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, a close cousin of Sheikh Hasina, a Health minister in the previous AL government, a former chief of the AL youth league, and a man who was in the jug for nearly two years during the last military-backed caretaker government on multiple charges of corruption. He demanded a fresh and deeper investigation of the facts leading to Sheikh Mujib's assassination on 15 August, 1975 to what he called "unearth the truth and to bring to book the real culprits who are still at large." "Why didn't you come out with your troops to save Bangabandhu," Selim charged Shafiullah, who was seated in the front row of a meeting of the Youth League last week which Sheikh Hassina attended. "They had only 200 odd people with them, but you were in charge of the vast army. What did you do? Were you afraid of your death or you were a mute spectator?" But Shafiullah's latest stance is that his deputy at the time, former president Ziaur Rahman, had persuaded him not to go. "I was simply not allowed to move out of my place. I was fearful of my life. Ziaur Rahman didn't let me go," he told in a talk-show of a private channel, unfolding a story that he did not care to divulge during the last 34 years. Detached political analysts tend to see his revelation as out and out concoction designed to save his own skin against looming accusations by front-ranking Awami League politicians that he deliberately ignored a call to save the Sheikh when the assassins were heading towards his house in Dhanmandi to obliterate him. They believe that Shafiullah brought in Zia's name knowing well that this fabrication would strike a sentimental and political chord to the AL leadership, to whom the former president, dead for over two decades, continues to be a bete noire. "Nobody is going to buy his fictional story because it is so childish and 34 years too late," one analyst said. "He would have told it long ago had there been a grain of truth in it," said a retired army officer who was senior to Shafiullah in service. "It seems Gen Shafiullah has no choice but to open a lie manufacturing factory in his attempt to slip through the dragnet." "If his allegations are true, then how does he justify taking up a job from president Ziaur Rahman to become Bangladesh's High Commissioner to Malaysia? And what kind of army chief was he if his deputy could prevent him from going somewhere? Does he want to prove himself a spineless, eunuch and coward General unable to act?" "He should have been wiser to keep lid on his lies. He has risked the whole dossier on him reopened. His chameleonic posture during his days in the Pakistani army, as well as his pussy-footy role in war of liberation and his becoming the army chief in spite of his being junior to Ziauir Rahman, as also his dubious position as a diplomat may now come under the scanner," he said. "I must say he is a great actor and a survivor. Lot of senior officers had been killed in the coups and counter-coups that followed when he was in command and thereafter, but nothing touched him despite being in such a key position". Barbs are shot at Shafiullah for his somewhat weird role as the army chief in 1975. And this is being done by the stalwarts of the party to which he still belongs since joining it after hanging up his uniform as a soldier 34 years ago and then serving successfully a number of non-AL governments as a diplomat for 20 more years. But H T Imam is relatively better off in that no party insider has openly accused him of his dubious role in the aftermath of the assassination of Sheikh Mujib. Privately however they perceive him as a slim customer who has virtually become the most powerful man after Sheikh Hasina in the current government. "It is simply because the prime minister considers him as her brain-trust. He is Awami League's Brajesh Mishra," confided one insider. "The prime minister is very popular among masses, but she is not so conversant with the high-voltage administrative knitty-gritty. So she needs somebody with good administrative experience that she can rely on. H T Imam is that somebody." Some others do not agree with this view. They argue H T Imam was never known to be a brilliant officer in the former CSP clan. He got the job not on merit, but on East Pakistan quota. In fact many doubt if Imam would have left the country and fled to India if he were not posted at the time as the Deputy Commissioner of Chittagong Hill Tracts, from where the path was easy to flee. "He is not the sort of character who can stand his ground," one of his critics said. "He is basically timid, ordinary and amenable to pressure," he said. "That sufficiently explains his role as the Cabinet Secretary after President Mujib is gone," he added. Many kittens may now come crawling out of the bag after Imam's self-defence that he had to do all oath-taking paraphernalia "at the gun point". But it opens the Pandora's Box on the character of the man, his guts and his courage. It also raises doubts about the veracity of his statement. Many people, especially those who feared that they could be targeted, went into hiding soon after 1975 tragedy erupted. Why did he not do that? Is he sure that whatever he is doing now is not doing at "gun point"? Or he will change the story when the next government comes and say, in sackcloth and ashes, that he was just a scapegoat in the present digital government? It does prove that he was either spontaneously willing to cooperate with new government, or was too coward to take a stand. Now, be that as it may, is it safe to put the whole burden of the state on such a fickle-minded individual's shoulder? Sheikh Hasina has indeed taken a grave risk. Let's hope she may not have to repent. |
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