Bangladesh scraps BDR, to raise new border force

t, is that the rebels were demanding better pay, clearance to participate in lucrative United Nations peacekeeping missions and a change in the command and control structure of the force.

Though these are by no means petty concerns, the scale of the
mutiny and the brutality of its perpetrators were far more vicious than rationally required to press mere economic demands. If pay scales were the principal bone of contention, BDR cadres could easily have resorted to the standard trade union tactic of going missing without leave or refusing to take orders from their superiors. That they could take senior army officers hostage in the BDR headquarters in Dhaka and massacre so many of them suggests strongly that the forces behind the upheaval had their eyes set on a much bigger prize - political power.

The geopolitical dimension of internal feuds within the Bangladesh army has to do with the India-Pakistan rivalry in South Asia. From the very beginning, the "pro-Islam" segments of Bangladeshi society and the army had sympathies for Pakistan and opposed the independence of Bangladesh in 1971. The JI [Jamaat-e-Islami Islamicist party] leadership was at the forefront of mass atrocities on behalf of the Pakistan army on the eve of Bangladeshi independence. When the secular Hasina returned to power in January, she implemented a bold initiative to seek war crimes prosecutions with UN assistance of the JI figures who spearheaded the killings in 1971.

Just a few days prior to the BDR mutiny, trials had begun against the JI chief, Matiur Rahman Nizami, and nine others for "carrying [out a] massacre during the war of independence in 1971". Hasina's steps against the fundamentalists were based on detailed investigations and a collection of documents over a long period by non-governmental organizations and associations of former freedom fighters. That the JI and JMB [ Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh - another Islamicist group] would hit back in the form of terrorist attacks or serial bomb blasts in the country was expected, but few thought that they could attempt a mutiny through sympathizers in the army and the BDR.

Tuesday, 3 March 2009, Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain organised a roundtable discussion titled ‘Sovereignty of Bangladesh under threat: BDR mutiny, TIFA and transit route.’ Bangla media representative of Hizb ut-Tahrir, Mujibul Islam delivered the keynote speech and the discussion was chaired by Nazmul Haque, senior member of Hizb ut-Tahrir. The invited guests who participated in the discussion included leaders of various Bangladeshi political parties, Islamic leaders, journalists and prominent community leaders. 

In his speech Mujibul Islam said that the recent brutal murder of unarmed officers and their families at the BDR headquarters, the government’s willingness to sign TIFA agreement with USA and their willingness to grant transit route to India is a serious threat to the sovereignty and national security of Bangladesh. He explained how the so called BDR mutiny was a plot by India and her agents inside and outside the government to weaken and create divisions within the defence forces of Bangladesh; that the TIFA agreement will give the USA permanent advantage and the legal basis to control and dictate commerce in Bangladesh; and that the allowing of transit route would make Bangladesh a weak and submissive state under India’s control.