Unsolved bombings and unanswered questions

The most worrisome news is about the outcome of the trial of the 1999 Jessore Udichi bombing. All the 23 accused have gone scot-free owing to lack of evidence against them, and the honourable judge very rightly pointed to the villain of the piece, the investigating officer, whose shoddy work has either allowed the accused to be let off the hook or has prevented the real perpetrators from being identified and brought to justice.

In both the cases not only has justice been not served, a great deal of disservice has been done to the security of the state. The failure of the state to punish the culprits is a great affront to the memory of those killed and the many that were injured in the blast, some maimed permanently. All these because of the petty political considerations prevailing over the obligation on the part of the investigating authority to maintain objectivity for the sake of truth and justice.

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How very appropriately has a commentator termed the judgment on the Udichi trial as a second tragedy for Udichi. Indeed, it would not be an exaggeration to say that it is also a tragedy for the entire nation. Why so will be clear as we go along.

Let us refresh the memory of the readers regarding comments made in these very columns many times since the religious fanatics broke surface through their bombings, on the way investigations of these cases were conducted and are still being carried out. There were reasons to be wary of the manner in which investigations were conducted, dictated by political consideration and directed in a way to get the political opponents only and not the real perpetrators.

Predetermining who the culprits are, putting the blame on political opponents and influencing the investigating officers directly or indirectly and the soft pedaling by the investigating officers that would ruin the merit of a case, and who are only too happy to please their political masters and not interested in their primary job of serving the cause of truth and justice, were things that we had cautioned against.

As the Udichi case straddled two regimes, the police acted with great promptness to rope in the members of the opposition during one regime while with equally single-minded fidelity ensured that everything was done to spoil the merit of the case when the regime changed after 2001 elections. That is the impression one gets from the media reports.

Even more worrisome is the fact that no cognizance of the statements of the members of JMB and JMJB, arrested in connection with the 2005 bombings, accepting culpability of the 1999 bombings at the Udichi function, were deemed necessary for a just adjudication of the case. One is therefore not surprised that not only has the judge delivered a stricture on the police for their sloppy work, he has also directed that legal action be taken against the investigating officer and called for reinvestigation of the case.

And this brings us to another news that attracts ones attention, that of the several US lawmakers expressing their concern about the Kibria case going particularly nowhere. It is the international standing of Mr. Kibria that has elicited the concerns through the statement of the US legislators.

While it would have been more fitting to express concern, if express they must, on the fate of all the cases of bombings, particularly those that have been perpetrated in the last several years, one cannot but share their concerns at the way our intelligence and investigative agencies have successfully failed to uncover the real perpetrators of the bombings so far.

It is disturbing to find that none of the cases has made much headway, not even that which involved the British High Commissioner and Mr. Kibria. And notwithstanding what the state minister for home had to say to his counterparts during his recent visit to the US, only can the arrest of the real culprits and their punishment assuage the public mind.

Our concerns arise out of the fact that the actual perpetrators and their national and international collaborators have remained out of the grasp of the law. Regrettably, what we find only too evident in the Udichi case may be replicated in the other similar cases. How likely is it that the other bombing cases under investigation might meet the same fate? Very likely.

There is no doubt that a very dedicated group of people have been working in Bangladesh for some time with a political agenda whose success was thought to be possible only through the use of violence. It is quite another thing that they went wrong in their basic premise that the people would fall for their strategy of exploiting the name of Islam.

These people have international links that provide both motivations and monetary support, something that we had been suggesting since these radicals came to the fore, the only question is how deep is the link. There is every reason to believe that the netting of the top notches of the radical outfit in March this year may not be the end of the drama but end of an act only. The network may decide to lie low only to reappear at an opportune moment. Thus, inability to unearth the real culprits and their links keeps us vulnerable to these elements.

And this brings us to the third news item which relates to the arrest of some foreigners in Jhalakati recently, of whom one has been living in the country for the last 18 years, cannot be dismissed out of hand. Many countries, even our neighbours, have also suffered what we in Bangladesh have suffered, some even more. The very recent blasts in Mumbai are a case in point. The only difference is that the perpetrators have been identified and brought to justice in all these countries, whereas we are still floundering with our enquiries and investigations.

Therefore, unless we can get to the bottom of all the terrorist acts and identify the perpetrators of the bombings, we can neither feel permanently safe from these elements nor can we disprove those that are only too eager to link us with international terrorist networks, nor can we prevent it having a negative impact on the country's standing internationally, as the distinguished US legislators have suggested it might.

Thus, we have reasons to be worried about the unsolved bombings and the unanswered questions.

The author is Editor, Defence & Strategic Affairs, The Daily Star.