BDR mutiny-- seeds of resentment
Monday, 2 March 2009
Last year I went to BDR School at Pilkhana, where Dhaka University (DU) admission tests were held. My brother was a candidate at the test examination. There I was talking with a BDR man. When he had come to know that I was a student of Dhaka University, he told me, "You've failed". I asked, "why?" He then mentioned the DU incident that happened between August 20 and 22, 2007. "You do nothing against the army," he said. I told him that the govt. had declared curfew, so what could the students do? He said, for students, emergency and curfew were nothing. They should have managed things against the army!
That day I was astonished. He was a BDR man. Being a member of a para-military force, he spoke in such a language against the army, the regular force of the government! I could understand nothing. After the BDR mutiny of February 25 I now understand what indications the BDR man had sought to give. I think the BDR men had a lot of anger against the army. But my question is how could this lead to such a dangerous situation? The BDR rebels killed most of their officers including their Director General (DG). I suspect there may be other causes and the incident might have happened at the instigation of some outsiders. So the govt. should make an inquiry into the causes.
It is also worrying for us that our intelligence failed to provide any advance information about such dangerous developments within the BDR. So our request is to reform our intelligence agencies, punish the rebels, increase national security and take necessary steps with the consultation of all concerned.
Mahfuzur Rahman Manik
IER, University of Dhaka
mahfuz_du@hotmail.com
That day I was astonished. He was a BDR man. Being a member of a para-military force, he spoke in such a language against the army, the regular force of the government! I could understand nothing. After the BDR mutiny of February 25 I now understand what indications the BDR man had sought to give. I think the BDR men had a lot of anger against the army. But my question is how could this lead to such a dangerous situation? The BDR rebels killed most of their officers including their Director General (DG). I suspect there may be other causes and the incident might have happened at the instigation of some outsiders. So the govt. should make an inquiry into the causes.
It is also worrying for us that our intelligence failed to provide any advance information about such dangerous developments within the BDR. So our request is to reform our intelligence agencies, punish the rebels, increase national security and take necessary steps with the consultation of all concerned.
Mahfuzur Rahman Manik
IER, University of Dhaka
mahfuz_du@hotmail.com