Mutiny cannot be condoned
Atrocities committed by BDR mutineers on February 25 will put to shame any force no matter by what name you call this force and no matter how the mutineers and their supporters would try to justify the mutiny.
In a civilised world a mutiny is mutiny and stern action needs to be taken against the mutineers who have not only broken a time honoured discipline by taking the law into their own hands, but have stained their hands with the blood of the officers whose life it was their sacred duty to protect.
The full scale of inhuman killings and barbarities the BDR mutineers have committed is yet to be revelaed. We do not even know yet how many army officers including the BDR chief Major General Shakil Ahmed were killed in cold blood and their bodies thrown in the gutter leading to a sewerage line falling in the river Buriganga. Floating dead bodies are being retrieved as I write this piece.
Is not the army a national institution whose officers and men fought gallantly and laid down their lives for our independence? Are not the officers whom the BDR mutineers have brutally murdered the sons of this soil? Are not these officers wives and children who have been mistreated and murdered by these mutineers for no crime whatsoever daughters of people like you and me? What crime did they commit to die the way they did? Someone has to answer.
If the BDR mutineers had any grievances which they say they have, why could not they approach the government through the media? Were the army officers they have killed responsible for all these grievances? Was it within the powers of the army officers they have killed to have raised the pay and allowances of the BDR personnel?
There might have been stray incidents of some army officers having been unjust in dealing with their under command BDR troops. But you cannot say that all army officers are bad. I myself have served in the erstwhile EPR and then again in BDR after our independence as a sector commander and GSO-1 in BDR headquarters.
As a staff officer I have a contribution in creating the post of DAD from the senior JCOs of BDR and in reorganisation of BDR as a force. Never did I have any occasion to feel that I or for that matter any army officer was looked down upon as an alien thrust upon BDR. I felt the same camaraderie between officers and men under command in BDR as I did when I was in the army. In fact I found BDR troops more loyal.
It is a very critical moment for the army leadership. Imagine the magnitude of sadness and grief, the rank and file of the army are going through following the barbaric and inhuman killings of so many of its officers, including a general, and their family members. It has power to put down the mutiny in no time. Its restraint stems from its commitment to uphold the rule of law. Let not this commitment be weakened by frustration
Let us put politics aside and deal with the crisis as it must be dealt with as per the rule of law. There is no way the mutiny of a paramilitary force like BDR can be allowed to go unpunished. Justice demands that those who have committed this heinous crime must be found out and brought to justice.
Madame Prime Minister, let the rule of law take its course. Let justice prevail. To let the perpetrators of such heinous crime in a paramilitary force go unpunished is likely to lead to more such misadventures in future.
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