Deposed PM Hasina, aides involved in conspiracy

The BDR massacre perpetrated in Dhaka's Pilkhana on February 25-26 in 2009 was "totally preplanned" and deposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her close aides were "directly involved in the conspiracy".
Major-General (retired) A L M Fazlur Rahman, the head of a seven-member national independent investigation commission that re-investigated the carnage, made this statement at a press conference on Sunday evening.
The commission held the press conference at BRICM auditorium in the city after submitting its fact-finding report to Chief Adviser of the interim government Professor Muhammad Yunus.
General Rahman said, "Former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Awami League leaders Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim (Sheikh Selim), Barrister Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh, Mirza Azam, Jahangir Kabir Nanok, Sahara Khatun, Sheikh Hasina's Military Adviser Lt-Gen (retired) Tarique Ahmed Siddique, former Army Chief General Moin U Ahmed and former DGFI Chief Lt-Gen Fazle Akbar were directly involved in the massacre."
They planned the conspiracy before the 2008 election for a long to prolong the Sheikh Hasina regime and to weaken the military and paramilitary forces of Bangladesh, says General Rahman.
Apart from this, "neighbouring country India which had a plan to destabilize Bangladesh also fueled the conspiracy", he adds.
All the conspirators took advantage of the anger brewing among BDR members over the operation Dal-Bhat programme.
General Fazlur Rahman says, "The insurgent BDR members could have been suppressed if a timely military intervention was launched. However, this did not happen, as it was part of a conspiracy. During the crisis, the army chief left army headquarters and relocated to state guesthouse Jamuna to meet with the then prime minister. The then Navy and Air chiefs were also with her at Jamuna."
He adds that both local and foreign assailants took part in the killing mission and the "intelligence failure was massive and multifaceted".
He claims a total of 921 Indian citizens entered Bangladesh during massacre, but clear information was not found about 67 of them. On a note of disappointment he says, "There can be no real sovereignty in a country where 57 officers are killed in a span of two days."
Commission members Major- Gen (retired) Md Jahangir Alam Talukder (Retd), Brigadier-General (retd) Md Saidur Rahman Bir Pratik, Joint Secretary (retd) Munshi Alauddin Al Azad, DIG (retd) Dr M Akbar Ali, Associate Prof Md Shariful Islam of Dhaka University, and Assistant Prof Md Shahnewaz Khan Chandan of Jagannath University were also present at the conference.

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