Facing the challenge
BDR mutiny and its trail of atrocities committed by the mutineers will continue to haunt the nation for a long time to come. We were struck by a cataclysm, the like of which we had never seen before.
BDR troops at Pilkhana mutinied, rounded up all officers who had assembled at the Darbar Hall, killed almost all of them including the commander, dumped their dead bodies in the sewer and in mass graves, looted officers' family quarters and then took to heels under the cover of darkness at night.
There is tell-tale evidence of officers having been tortured and their bodies burnt. The sheer scale of barbarism resorted to by the frenzied mutineers is simply mind-boggling. The mutineers have not only denigrated themselves as soldiers of a paramilitary force, but have put the entire force to shame.
As I write this piece on the seventh day after the mutiny, the search is still going on to retrieve missing dead bodies. We must seriously ponder over what had gone amiss for which we had to pay so dearly and what we must do lest such horror and tragedy do not visit us again.
Let us put politics and our emotions aside and decide what we must do by way of rebuilding and restructuring BDR so that tomorrow we can emerge as a nation much stronger and more united than before. We have to take some hard decisions now without any delay. What we decide and do today will shape and define our nationhood tomorrow.
There is no doubt that there was total command failure from the rifle battalion commander right up to the DG BDR. Officers were completely alienated from the BDR troops. It is difficult to believe that this alienation or estrangement took place in one day.
It is true that BDR troops never welcomed army officers as their commander. Their anti-army and anti army-officer attitude dates back to pre-independence days in EPR where they were commanded predominantly not only by non-Bengali Pakistan army officers but also by retired non-Bengali junior commissioned officers (JCOs) and non-commissioned officers (NCOs) from Pakistan army. EPR troops who were 100 percent Bengalis were badly treated by these non-Bengali officers, JCOs, and NCOs.
But the anti-army officer feelings among the BDR troops as a whole have never been so pronounced and deep-seated that BDR troops would stage a mutiny and go on a mass officer killing spree like what they have done.
It is likely that their latent anti-army officer feelings have been whipped up by some vested interests who would like to see, on the one hand, an emaciated and weak army, and on the other hand, a highly demoralised army seething with discontent -- a perfect scenario to destabilise the political situation in a third world country like ours.
Thanks to enlightened and patriotic army leadership and very mature and astute political handling by the government it seems we have weathered the situation this time.
There might have been some outside elements involved in the BDR mutiny as some initial observations suggest. This may or may not be true. But what is true and irrefutable is the fact that it was our own BDR troops who carried this macabre act of killing, loot and arson on that day.
Some 7,000 troops, including those who came from various sectors outside Dhaka, had assembled at Pilkhana on the occasion of BDR Week, an annual festivity. Supposing some 1,000 troops took part in the killing, loot and arson, what was the role played by the remainder 6,000 troops?
If the majority of troops had opposed the killing, the mutiny was bound to have failed. That the mutiny went ahead as planned and there was none who could warn the BDR chief or any other officer about the mutiny surely suggests some culpability of all BDR troops present on that day.
It will not be difficult to find out who played leading roles in the mutiny resulting in barbaric acts of killing, rape, loot and arson and disposing of the dead bodies. There are video footages of those mutineers who spoke before various TV channel reporters in support of their acts of mutiny and those who went as a delegation for talks with the prime minister. Once these mutineers are apprehended and taken on remand, it will not take much time before they begin to spill the beans and a clear picture emerges as to who did what during the mutiny.
Mutiny is the most serious offence for a military or paramilitary force to commit. Usually a military unit or battalion involved in a mutiny is disbanded. Troops involved in inciting and leading mutiny are court-martialed and awarded capital punishment. Others are meticulously screened out. Officers are sacked for command failure.
In the case of BDR mutiny, since it is a mutiny by BDR troops at Pilkhana only, there is no need to disband BDR as a whole. But the name BDR should be changed suitably because this name will always carry with it the ignominy of mutiny.
All BDR personnel from deputy assistant director to any sepoy whose active involvement in the mutiny is established through an enquiry committee should be tried and punished as speedily as mutineers are usually tried and punished.
The remainder of the BDR troops who were physically present on that day and remained passive on-lookers, in my opinion, need to be screened out of service because their loyalty and dedication in service will always remain suspect.
As for BDR troops in various sectors outside Dhaka, a screening committee can be formed which will screen out troops whose personal conduct during and following the Pilkhana mutiny was questionable and amounted to breach of discipline and obedience.
As a long-term policy the government may consider absorbing suitable retired army officers into the force. Once army officers are permanently absorbed into the force, this will facilitate greater understanding and fellow feeling and camaraderie between officers and troops.
The present policy of posting army officers on secondment to the force may continue for the time being. But over a period of ten years or so serving army officers posted in this force may be phased out completely
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