What lies below

Photo: Adnan/Drik News

The Pilkhana incident has restored mutiny and violent deaths to the centre of political discourse after many years. The role of institutions like the army and its auxiliaries like the BDR and the Ansars have returned in full force, making everyone anxious to understand what they mean in terms of law and order stability and the character of the state institutions that house such forces.
The blood spilled at Pilkhana has shattered everyone's sense of a secure space where the armed branches of the state are concerned. Now, many will wonder if, given the existing framework in the armed branches of the state, somewhere, something is brewing or not at any time which can suddenly explode as it did this February.
Most view the matter largely as a law and order issue, which can be fixed through punishment and discipline. Few analyses are exploring the internal crisis of a state arrangement where an entire institution of the armed variety can turn violently on another, in this case, the BDR on the army.
To dismiss this as a law and order problem only would be troubling, especially in case of Bangladesh where military intervention in matters of the state has a long history, as have been such revolts, especially in the army. Nor can conspiracy theories alone accommodate the explanations.
The large-scale involvement of BDR personnel has also created blanket demonising of the jawans, which means all are presumed guilty until proven innocent. Till date around 150 have been charged and latest reports say at least nine have died from "suicide" and "heart attacks," presumably during questioning.
While custodial deaths are a common practice in Bangladesh, it is disturbing now because if one falls into the trap of violating human rights of accused persons by an investigating agency, the price is always paid by the entire state.
We do hear a lot of voices demanding death penalty and the harshest possible punishment for the mutineers. The numbers of mutineers also rise with every count. Prescribing death is always easy, but as our history shows, if, after all these years of formal management, violence can occur with such extreme force within the military and the para-military because some basic flaws were not repaired, some fundamental system of check and balance was not maintained by the armed branches with all their resources and personnel, there is cause for deeper worries.
And it is not an internal crisis but it becomes a matter of public discourse. When so many are involved, it's not a conspiracy of rogue elements, but a structural problem.
As the incident involves a gruesome array of killing of army officers, and human sentiments are still raw, any analysis of the situation has a chance of being perceived as either "pro-army" or "pro-BDR" in the present environment.
For the moment, there is some feeling that the issue is very black and white, and that punishing the guilty will restore the situation. However, that is only partly true, as the problem is certainly much more complex in the context of our history since 1971.

Afsan Chowdhury is a journalist writing for Bangladeshi and South Asian publications.