Q & A
It has been a full two weeks since the Pilkhana massacre, but the intervening time has done little to defuse tensions or bring about any kind of resolution to the issue.
Of course, we Bangladeshis have a long history of leaving things undone and questions unanswered. Our history is littered with incidents, from assassinations to terrorist attacks to arms hauls, that we have never truly gotten to the bottom of and that raise all sorts of troubling questions that have never adequately been answered.
Even where investigations have been conducted and guilt nominally assigned, there always remain crucial unanswered questions as to who might have been pulling the strings behind the scenes and whether we have learned the entire story or not.
As a result of all these unanswered questions, the nation is never short of conspiracy theories as to what the real story might be. I don't think we are necessarily conspiracy-minded per se, it is just the unfortunate natural response to the secrets and lies that permeate public life.
When it comes to this latest tragedy, one enterprising on-line commentator has catalogued 20 different conspiracy theories making the rounds, each seemingly more fantastic than the last.
However, just because at least 19 of those conspiracy theories, by definition, must be incorrect, and a good number of them are utterly beyond the realm of any kind of plausibility, does not mean that we need to take the cover story for what happened at face value.
Indeed, if anyone still believes that the mutiny and massacre was about pay, privileges, and service conditions, then I have some prime real estate in the middle of the Buriganga that I would like to sell you.
As the investigation proceeds, there is now evidence that the mutiny had been planned at least two months in advance and that the date had been carefully chosen so that the maximum number of officers would be vulnerable.
So what could the motive possibly have been? Well, one way of analysing the situation is to see who has lost the most in the aftermath of the mutiny and to work backwards from there.
The past two years have seen a tangible shift in the relationship between the army and the political parties. Until the massacre, for the first time in the past 35 years, the army and the AL had entered into a kind of uneasy truce, if not partnership, and this represented a tectonic shift in the balance of power in the country.
Now, with immense anger simmering within army ranks against the government, the relationship between the ruling AL and the army hangs by a thread.
Not only must the AL now reckon with an army, significant pockets of which are resentful to it for what they perceive as the government's mishandling of the siege, but it is now also, as a result, on the back-foot when it comes to its policy agenda.
Now is no longer the time to introduce any kind of controversial or bold new measure, and, indeed, such is the tenseness of the national mood that the entire AL policy agenda now stands compromised.
However, paradoxically, it is the gravity of the situation that may turn out to be the nation's best friend.
In the past, as I have written, we have never gotten to the bottom of these kinds of incidents. But this time we may not have the luxury of sweeping everything down the memory hole.
In the first place, the army remains incandescent with rage, and will demand answers and accountability.
In the second, the prime minister seems to have come to the realisation that if she doesn't move against the responsible parties with all her might that they will only be emboldened to try their luck again in the future.
Investigation is underway to look into answering the many unanswered questions, from militant links to the make-up of BDR troops to who was responsible for allowing almost all the mutineers to flee the scene.
This time we need to get to the bottom of things. The stakes could not be higher. The anger in the army needs to be assuaged. Nor can we permit those behind the massacre to continue to run amok without consequence.
If we don't hunt down and root out those who were responsible, they will just reappear down the road, as has happened so many times in the past. We cannot let this happen again.
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