Leaders, troops to bridge gap

Maj Gen Md Mainul Islam

Outgoing Director General of Bangladesh Rifles Maj Gen Md Mainul Islam expressed hope that there would be no communication gap between the leaders and soldiers of the paramilitary force following implementation of the reforms programme.
"There must be hierarchy in the force, but I am sure there will be no communication gap between the leaders and the led when organisational changes we have done will be implemented in full spirit," Gen Mainul told The Daily Star yesterday.
Mainul hands over his charge today to newly appointed BDR DG Maj Gen Rafiqul Islam.
Gen Rafiq, who was the DG of Ansar and VDP, was appointed the chief of border guards after a severe crisis gripped the organisation following the bloody mutiny of February 25-26 last year.
The mutiny killed 57 of top- and mid-ranked officers of BDR including the then DG Maj Gen Shakil Ahmed.
The carnage along with the simultaneous mutiny in 40 other garrisons was the first such scale of tragic incident in the 214 years' history of the force.
"I hope such tragic incidents would not be repeated in the force," said Gen Mainul who has been reverted to the army.
Gen Mainul confirmed that he has been appointed as Chief of General Staff (CGS) of the army and would take over his new responsibilities tomorrow.
The post of the CGS was lying vacant since March when CGS Maj Gen Abdul Hafiz was appointed as force commander of the UN Peace-Keeping Mission in the Ivory Coast.
On the other hand, Maj Gen Chowdhury Hasan Sarwardy, who has been appointed as the new DG of Ansar and VDP, joined on Thursday.
The government made the changes in the forces on April 15.
Talking to The Daily Star, the newly appointed DG said his main job will be protecting the border besides continuing the trial of the mutiny and apply the government policies including reorganisation of the force.
Recalling the experiences of his fourteen-moth job in BDR in an abnormal situation, Gen Mainul said, "My prime task was to regain the chain of command in the force and it has been re-established shortly though limitations always remain."
He considers the second biggest task was to bring the offenders of the force to book and that has already started and is in progress.
"My other major task was to bring the border back to the normalisation," he said, remembering the people's tension about the fate of 4,456-kilometer-long border with India and Myanmar, for which there are about 44,000 riflemen.
Besides protecting the border and reform of the force, another major task was to ensure that the same type of tragic incident would not happen again.
Gen Mainul said his other big task was to assist others to ensure compensation for the victims of the carnage.
"It is the total force [BDR] that achieved the goals," said Gen Mainul, adding, draft of law of the force has been finalised and is awaiting submission in parliament as a bill.
"We have also finalised the new organisational structure or organogram and that is also awaiting the government approval.
"I can proudly say that nobody can point a finger to us that we have worked to take any revenge. We worked to ensure justice," said Gen Mainul.
Around 80 soldiers have died so far in custody of BDR since they surrendered, putting the force in the face of severe criticism.
"All the controversial deaths in the force have been investigated by the home ministry and if there was anything wrong I was supposed to know. But I did not hear anything and we are very clear to our conscience in this regard," said the outgoing BDR chief.