The BDR carnage and intelligence failure

Photo: Shafiqul Islam Kajol/drik News

THE tragic incidents that took place in Pilkhana on 25th of Feb 2009, where fifty-eight army officers were brutally killed, was one of the most heinous crimes beyond anybody's comprehension. Such brutal and merciless killings are very seldom.
We know of the carnage of cruel and barbaric rulers and kings in the past, we also know the atrocity of Pakistani soldiers during our Liberation War, but the scale is not even near to what these mutineers have done to our beloved officers who lived through thick and thin with their troops. They not only killed the officers they went further to mutilate the dead bodies and disposed the bodies most unceremoniously in drains and gutters.
The initial media reporting was in support of mutineers. They were telecasting mutineers upholding the genuineness of the mutiny, for they have enormous grievance against Army officers deputed to BDR. Our media failed to give the real situation of Pilkhana whereas people got news of what was actually happening through international media. What were their grievances? Were these grievances genuine? Did they really want to solve the problems? If they really wanted to, they would have kept the officers as hostages and gone for negotiation. But here in this case no officer was held hostage, they killed all available officers in Peelkhana and asked for negotiation. This was a fake negotiation only to avoid punitive action for unpardonable offences they already committed.
The nature and the characteristics of mutiny is that the mutineers always have a genuine and noble cause; they hardly involve in such immoral act of killing and looting. This was a very well coordinated plan with the aims primarily to demolish the force's strength and unity and ultimately hit the very foundation of our national security and sovereignty by weakening the country's defence.
The BDR crisis was not handled very prudently. It is not known if the stock of the situation regarding the safety of the officers and their family were taken before declaration of general amnesty, although by then the international media was telecasting updated BDR incident. Even after the declaration of general amnesty on 25th Feb afternoon, the mutineers did not lay down their arms, nor did they surrender. The public were unaware of any deadline given to the mutineers to surrender. The mutineers kept on carrying out the massacre till the morning of 27th February. They, however, put an additional demand on the evening of 25th February that amnesty to be passed in National Assembly and a gazette to be published to this effect.
In handling such crisis, the handler must be intelligent, knowledgeable and capable of handling such crisis. But here, in case of Pilkhana, an inexperienced person and unfamiliar to such crisis was sent. Questions are being also raised regarding intelligence. It can't be said surely whether it is an intelligence failure or command failure. We have to wait till the investigation is completed. But failure to gather intelligence is not a new phenomenon, especially if it is ill equipped and ill organized. The Twin Tower blast, Mumbai terrorist attack, 17 August grenade attack and bomb blast in sixty-three districts of Bangladesh, all are cases of intelligence failure. However, intelligence organizations will not have any excuse if they fail to find out the cause and the perpetrators after the occurrence of the incident. Immediately after the occurrence, they should take control of the situation and try to identify the cause and who are behind it. They should also carry out thorough study of their failure and identify the weaknesses and take a remedial measure.
Three committees so far have been formed to unearth the fact as to how it happened and who were behind the planning and execution. Foreign intelligence experts are also in the country to lend their expert hand in the investigation process. These experts will not go beyond providing technical assistance for obvious reason. Therefore, we have to rely on our investigating team and keep our fingers crossed. It is very important to find out who are the real perpetrators behind this heinous act. The investigating team should be upright and they should not have any weaknesses or emotions regarding the investigation. The whole nation is eagerly waiting to know the outcome of the investigation.
The author is a freelancer.