Amid a plethora of assumptions, rumour and guess-work the darkest truth behind the country’s most notorious military tragedy at home soil remains unknown since our agencies keeps lacking both the knowledge and efficiency in finding substantive evidences. Even more aching is when we see how a number of political quarters have knowingly distorted facts surrounding this tragedy.
We don’t know, for how long these investigative failures will continue to haunt us.
The government had established an investigative committee to determine the causes behind the rebellion soon after it had ended. The committee was later reformed and reinforced in the face of stern pressure from opposition groups. The government even approached the FBI and Scotland Yard in this regard. The Bangladesh Army had also formed an investigation committee while listing and hunting down alleged rebels under the codenamed “Operation Rebel Hunt”. However, besides the rest of the country we want to know all details about their collective findings.
We know that the mutineers had produced a 22-point demand. We also know about the accusation of army officers embezzling BDR soldiers’ wage bonuses and other issues of contention. That said, even the total sum of all their demands and discontents do not rationally explain and justifies the killings of so many officers at one go. Bangladesh has experienced uprisings and mutinies within its defence establishments before, but such large number of killing of officers were never witnessed ever before. The deep rooted cause behind the mayhem is elsewhere.
We were somewhat puzzled – when the Home Minister reportedly told the journalists “the planners and participants were brought to book. Those who instigated the crimes or those who gave support from behind have also been penalised based on concrete evidence”. Undeniably it was a blatant attempt to conceal failure. Many were arrested and awarded with death and life imprisonment sentences. Also the case is still pending with the High Court. How could an important law maker like him jump to such capricious conclusion?
Needs mentioning – that the BDR trial was riddled in controversy from the very beginning when Human Rights Watch described the mass trial as “an affront to international legal standards”. Moreover, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights at that time had branded it “rife with procedural irregularities, including the lack of adequate and timely access to lawyers”. Furthermore, some prisoners are reported to have died while in custody. The mass trials of nearly 6,000 suspects had raised question of serious violations in holding fair trials.
It is time the rulers within the corridors of power stops hoodwinking the people while coming up with logical and honest explanations to all the above contentious issues. Without delaying any further the government should prove its accountability to the families of the victims and the people by admitting the truth and failures about its investigations. It has no right to extract revenge as per its own convenience; hold trials and apply law according to its caprices. No matter how sensitive, we want uncovering of doubts about cover-up behind the carnage of a large number of valuable officers of Bangladesh army.
