[Reader-list] "Pakistan in the frame over Bangladesh uprising"

[Naeem Mohaiemen]

The latest theories

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/14/world/asia/14bangla.html

On Tue, Mar 3, 2009 at 8:01 PM, Kshmendra Kaul <kshmendra2005 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> It could be just yet another 'conspiracy theory' although certainity of
> knowledge about Pakistani involvement has not been claimed.
>
> Ironic though that the 'conspiracy theory specialist' Pakistan is the
> suspect. Pakistan and Pakistanis themselves make a habit of and are very
> fond of seeing the 'real conspiracy' behind a 9/11 or a 26/11 or Attack on
> Indian Parliament or Massacre of Sikhs in Kashmir.
>
> (To Naeem) : In Bangladesh is there any such (seriously
> considered) suspicion about Pakistani involvement in the BDR Mutiny?
>
> - " ....... harrowing reports of the wives and children of some of the
> officers being mutilated – serious doubts have surfaced over whether such
> brutality would have been carried out simply over a pay dispute"
>
> - " ........   whether the uprising was linked to the prime minister's plans
> to establish a war-crimes tribunal to put on trial those who collaborated
> with the Pakistan Army in Bangladesh's war of independence."
>
>
> Kshmendra
>
>
>
> "Pakistan in the frame over Bangladesh uprising"
>
> (The Pakistani intelligence services are suspected of being involved last
> week's Dhaka massacre of at least 77 Bangladesh Army officers.)
>
> By Dean Nelson
>   01 Mar 2009
>
> Investigators say they have begun a search for the "powerful quarters"
> behind the revolt amid claims it may have been organised from abroad.
>
> Officials yesterday filed murder cases against 1,000 border security guards
> of the Bangladesh Rifles as reports emerged in India and Bangladesh of a
> Pakistan-based plot to destabilise the new government of prime minister
> Sheikh Hasina.
>
> The Times of India quoted sources close to the investigation claiming
> arrested mutineers had named a senior a Bangladeshi businessman and
> politician believed to have close links with Pakistan's intelligence
> service. It was also reported that confession statements suggested the
> mutineers had received around £100,000 to bankroll their revolt.
>
> Pakistan's ISI intelligence agency has previously been accused of
> involvement in the attacks on Mumbai last November in which 173 were killed.
>
> As the scale of carnage and the cruelty of the mutineers has emerged –
> including harrowing reports of the wives and children of some of the
> officers being mutilated – serious doubts have surfaced over whether such
> brutality would have been carried out simply over a pay dispute. The death
> toll is expected to rise further as investigators search for 70 officers who
> are still missing.
>
> Investigators are expected to probe the extent of militant penetration of
> the Bangladesh Rifles by al-Qaeda linked groups like Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen
> Bangladesh, and also whether the uprising was linked to the prime minister's
> plans to establish a war-crimes tribunal to put on trial those who
> collaborated with the Pakistan Army in Bangladesh's war of independence.
>
> A leading Bangladeshi newspaper quoted one member of the inquiry committee
> saying the mutiny could not have happened without the support of "powerful
> quarters."
>
> A seven-member committee to investigate the revolt, led by the country's
> Home Minister, Sahara Khatun, formally began its investigation yesterday to
> establish how the massacre happened and who was behind it.
>
> It is due to report next weekend, but its inquiry will take place in an
> increasingly febrile atmosphere as rumours of a plot to destabilise the
> government and force the army to take power gathered momentum.
>
> The mutineers themselves originally told the prime minister they were
> rebelling over poor pay and promotion prospects and abuses by their
> officers, who were drawn from the army and not from the Bangladesh Riflemen
> themselves. They claimed discredited officers were often seconded to the
> Rifles as a 'punishment posting' and that they used the Riflemen for
> personal smuggling operations.
>
> Members of the Bangladesh Rifles who fled their posts during the mutiny
> began to return to barracks yesterday (SUN) as detectives said police forces
> throughout the country were hunting 1,000 border guards wanted for the
> mutiny murders.
>
> Dhaka police chief Nabojit Khisa Khisa said: "Cases have been filed against
> more than 1,000 BDR troops who were involved with the mutiny in Dhaka last
> week."
>
> Officials said the ringleaders among them, including six who met prime
> minister Sheikh Hasina to negotiate an amnesty, would be hanged if found
> guilty.
>
> Opposition leader Begum Khaleda Zia, the former prime minister and leader of
> the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, pledged her support for the inquiry but
> criticised Sheikh Hasina's initial amnesty offer to the rebels. "This gave
> them more time to kill more people and conceal their brutality," she said.
>
> http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/pakistan/4902794/Pakistan-in-the-frame-over-Bangladesh-uprising.html
>
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