Resolving hostage crisis
The 33-hour high drama at the BDR headquarters ended through a negotiated settlement on February 26. But the settlement evoked controversy along political lines and also among a section of armed forces members.
The brutalities that took place at the BDR headquarters can't be fathomed by any means. The loss wrought to the nation as well as the families of the victims is irreparable. A group of heavily armed youths in the guise of BDR jawans took hostage the army officers gathered at the Darbar during the annual gathering of the BDR.
There were two ways to quell the disturbance: One through military action and the other through negotiations. The government opted for the latter.
Some people are arguing that military action would have lessened the number of casualties and that the way the government managed the situation increased the number of deaths and heightened the ordeal of the survivors. But before coming to such a conclusion, we have to analyse the nature of the attack and also temperament of the perpetrators.
Within hours it was evident that the killers were desperate. They fired indiscriminately at the first sight of the army personnel at one of the gates of the headquarters, and a number of people lost their lives and many were injured in the firing spree. Initially, it was thought that it was a revolt by a group of unhappy and deprived hot-headed BDR jawans, who killed a number of officers in a heated moment. But finally, it was unearthed that it was a well-planned killing mission that was executed with utmost coolness and in a well-orchestrated manner.
It is not possible for BDR jawans to kill their entire leadership in such a brutal manner for realising their demands or for any other grudge. Only a group of people having strong ideological belief or motivation can carry out such carnage. The notion gets stronger footing when we see that women and children were not spared and that the dead bodies were desecrated in a planned manner.
Most of the BDR jawans are practicing Muslims. A long time back, I had an opportunity to interact with a group of BDR jawans at a border post, and I found them very hospitable, amiable and gentle. A practicing Muslim without having strong ideological belief could never dishonour a dead body or a woman. But on February 25th and 26th, scores of dead bodies were dishonoured and women and children killed.
It is true that some BDR jawans were seen collaborating with the killers, but it is yet to be verified whether or not they were directly involved in the killings or were forced to take up arms under coercion and intimidation. The executers succeeded in motivating a section of the BDR jawans to join hands with them, at least by taking up arms, by exploiting their deprivation. Where did the killers come from? Were they aliens or invaders? Or were they from the BDR ?
The way our country has been infested with religious extremists for the one and a half decades, it is not impossible for them to infiltrate the armed forces, let alone the BDR. Fundamentalist forces carried out innumerable well-orchestrated attacks during the last decade. The subsequent fallout was the execution of the higher echelon of the group and mass arrest of the field-level activists.
It was mainly our armed forces personnel working in the Rab who were the key players in crushing the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) and other extremist forces. So, there is every possibility that our military officers will be the targets of the extremists. The BDR Darbar was a unique opportunity to implement their plot. So, it can be concluded that the killers were not mere soldiers of BDR, rather they were an ideologically motivated group who were desperate and committed only to their cause.
Under such circumstances, military action against a well-armed force might have caused disaster in a densely populated area of Dhaka. Moreover, historically, military action in such cases has proved to be disastrous. I will cite a few examples of military actions against hostage-taking, where such actions caused huge civilian casualties.
On September 1, 2004, armed youths took hostage about 1,200 school children and their guardians in Beslan of the Russian Federation. Russian forces stormed the school building on September 4, killing about 400 people. Later, it was evident that most of the people were killed in the firing by the Russian forces.
A Chechen group took hostage about 150 people in Moscow theatre on October 23, 2002. The Russian forces pumped poisonous gas into the theatre, killing 129 people and 23 hostage-takers.
We saw that 175 people were killed and 300 injured during the four-day fight between the hostage-takers and the Indian forces during the recent Mumbai attacks.
On the contrary, South Korea could get its 21 nationals, out of 23, released from the Afghan hostage-takers in 2007 after a lingering negotiation of 42 days. Historically, negotiations have always yielded better results in resolving such armed conflicts.
We should remember that when a group, especially an ideological trained group, takes civilians hostage, it does so on a "do or die" basis. The February 25th incident was such an event, and its management was very critical.
The government did the right thing by taking the negotiation option in resolving the crisis. Any hasty military action would have taken massive toll of innocent BDR jawans, their family members, the surviving army officers and their family members, and civilians in the surrounding vicinity.
Any wrong decision at that critical time would have caused a greater loss for the country compared to what happened. That does not mean that I am belittling the loss, rather I am just comparing the current situation with what could have happened.
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