I get the feeling that those kind of Bangladeshis are only looking for the elusive recognition. They want themselves and their country to be noticed and frankly theirs happens to be a country that is in the news only in case of a disaster.You know what was the First reaction some of the Bangladeshi Razakars (traitors)??? They squarely blamed India! and they wanted their COAS to quit or something. What are they smoking? I mean, what would India get from inciting a mutiny in BDR? These guys go onto say that India did this to stop the modernisation of BDR!! LoL what modernisation? They are talking like BDR is gonna get their own fighter jets, and navy and that India is scared!
Many Bangladeshis (and Pakistanis) pride themselves on their "contribution" to the UN. These are the two biggest "contributors" to the UN!"They told us that they were treated shabbily and wanted cheap rations, higher pay, better working conditions and UN postings," he said.
In addendum to the above statement, the following startling revelations have come to light:Mutiny planned, funded: Nanak
Star Online Report
State Minister for LGRD and Cooperatives Jahangir Kabir Nanak today said the killing of army officers during the BDR mutiny was an act of sabotage.
"It did not happen out of blue. It was a conspiracy. They were killed in a well-planned way," Nanak told reporters at 4:15pm at the VIP gate of BDR headquarters near Jhigatala.
The state minister said a vested group had long been working on the conspiracy and it distributed millions of taka among the BDR soldiers.
He also vowed that the conspirators must face exemplary punishment.
Parliament whip Mirza Azam accompanied Nanak.
http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/latest_news.php?nid=15290
http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20090226&fname=bangladesh&sid=1Bad Omens
The mutiny across Bangladesh by directly-recruited junior officers and other ranks of the Bangladesh Rifles (BD) bodes ill for the recently-elected (in December,2008) government headed by Sheikh Hasina."In an assessment on Bangladesh disseminated in January, 1997, this writer had observed as follows:
"There are individual officers in the Bangladesh intelligence community and in its security forces, who feel positively towards Sheikh Hasina (Prime Minister) and her father, but one cannot say the same thing of these organisations as institutions. Institutionally, they may not share with her the same enthusiasm for closer relations with India and for assisting it in dealing with the insurgency (in the North-East). It would take her and her party considerable time to understand and assess the intricacies of their working and the labyrinthine relationships which they have built up with their Pakistani counterparts during the last 21 years. She, therefore, has to move with caution."
"The savage manner in which 15 members of India's Border Security Force (BSF) were reportedly abducted, tortured, killed and their bodies mutilated beyond recognition last week shows that even after almost five years in power, Sheikh Hasina is apparently not in total command of her military and intelligence establishment, which like its counterpart in Pakistan, has been infected by the fundamentalist virus of Afghan vintage and is probably developing an agenda of its own vis-à-vis India."
-- Extract from my article Bangladesh: A Bengali Abbasi Lurking Somewhere? dated 23-4-2001 The current mutiny across Bangladesh by directly-recruited junior officers and other ranks of the Bangladesh Rifles (BD) bodes ill for the recently-elected (in December,2008) government headed by Sheikh Hasina. Their mutiny, which started in Dhaka on February 25,2009, and has since spread to other parts of the country, including Chittagong, ostensibly over long-pending grievances regarding pay and allowances and food rations, is directed till now not against the political leadership but against the senior army officers--serving and retired--on deputation to the BDR.
The targeted Army officers occupy senior positions in the command and control of the BDR and their pay and allowances and other perks are governed by those applicable to the army officers and not by those applicable to the directly-recruited officers of the BDR. Resentment over what is perceived by the direct recruits as the step-motherly treatment meted out to them by the deputationists and re-employed officers of the Army seem to have acted as the trigger for the mutiny.
The spreading mutiny, during which a number of senior army officers serving on deputation in the BDR, are reported to have been either killed or held hostage, seems to have taken the Army and political leadership by surprise. It was the outcome of a secret conspiracy well-planned and well-executed by the junior officers and other ranks. The intelligence wing of the Bangladesh Police and the Army-dominated Directorate-General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI) seem to have been taken by surprise. If the DGFI had advance information, it would have at least tried to alert the senior army officers so that they did not become targets and victims of the mutineers. The fact that it did not do so suggests that the DGFI was not aware.
The fact that the mutineers were able to plan and execute this conspiracy in total secrecy with even the grass-roots political cadres of different parties not getting scent of it, speaks of a well-organised anti-army network inside the BDR.
The identities of the ring leaders of the conspiracy remain unclear. A question of major concern both to the BD political and military leadership as well as to India should be--was the mutiny purely due to bread and butter issues or is there something more to it? As in the case of the BD Army, in the case of the BDR too, many of the recruits at the lower levels come from the villages and quite a few of them are products of the mushrooming madrasas across the country funded by money from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Pakistan. The rural areas of Bangladesh and the madrasas there are the main recruiting and brainwashing grounds of the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HUJI-B) and other jihadi organisations. While the international community has paid considerable attention to monitoring the infiltration of the Pakistani Armed Forces by fundamentalist and jihadi elements since the days of the late Gen.Zia-ul-Haq, similar attention has not been paid to monitoring the presence of fundamentalist and jihadi elements in the BD Armed Forces and the BDR.
Senior officers' relationship with the junior ranks has always been the Achilles' heel of the BDR, which used to be known before the birth of BD in 1971 as the East Pakistan Rifles (EPR). The EPR consisted largely of Bengali direct recruits officered by Punjabi and Pashtun deputationists from the Pakistan Army. Resentment over the humiliating attitude of the Pakistani Army officers towards the Bengali junior ranks was an important factor, which had contributed to the desertion of large sections of the Bengali junior ranks from the EPR and their joining the freedom struggle under Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
After the birth of Bangladesh those members of the EPR, who had deserted and joined the freedom struggle, were reconstituted into the hard-core of the newly-created BDR. The force at the lower and middle levels has grown around this hard core. It now has a strength of around 70,000 and its role is mainly trans-border security in times of peace. In Bangladesh territory bordering India, which has been the hotbed of the activities of the HUJI and where many of its training camps are located, the BDR is responsible for security. Its role in this regard often brings it into contact with the HUJI and other jihadi elements.
The unfriendly attitude of sections of the lower ranks of the BDR to India became evident from the savage manner in which 15 members of India's Border Security Force (BSF) were abducted, tortured, killed and their bodies mutilated beyond recognition by elements from the BDR in April, 2001. Sheikh Hasina, who was in power at that time too, did not or could not take action against those responsible for this savagery despite her professed friendship for India. The BD Press had quoted the then BD Foreign Secretary, Syed Muazzem Ali, as telling journalists at Dacca on April 20, 2001, as follows: "The border force has standing responsibility of protecting the frontier from any external attacks. BDR are there to repulse any attack on the country’s frontier. There are some situations when decisions are taken instantly. It does not require to send file to Dhaka, get order and then start firing. It is the charter duty of BDR to protect our frontier from any attack on our border. If question of war comes, then the orders from top level may come." He thus tried to justify the action by the BDR.
The mutiny and the consequent confrontation between the junior elements of the BDR and the Army has placed Sheikh Hasina in a tricky situation.The Army seems determined to act against the BDR mutineers and crush their revolt by using tanks and other heavy weapons against them. It should be able to crush them in Dhaka and other big towns. Its ability to do so in the rural areas and particularly near the border with India remains to be seen. If the mutineers realise the lack of wisdom of their action and surrender without further resistance, the situation may be controlled. If they put up a resistance in the rural areas, many HUJI and other jihadi elements might join them in the hope of exploiting the situation to their benefit.
In the past, the BDR had remained loyal to Sheikh Hasina and other political leaders. They preferred to depend on the police and para-military forces for their personal security than on the Army, which they distrusted. Now she has no other option but to back the army in its confrontation with the mutineers and authorise it to take whatever action it considers necessary to quell the mutiny. The political fall-out of the confrontation could be unpredictable for her government. The ultimate beneficiaries of any political instability resulting from it could be the jihadis.
The developing situation has to be closely watched by India and the rest of the international community.
B. Raman is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai.
The attack on Lankan cricketers in LahoreTERRORISM
The Hidden Emirate Of Anarchistan
A larger theme unites 26/11, the BDR mutiny and Lahore terror
The Great Game
It's the 21st century subcontinent version of the Great Game, which is essentially a strategic battle between two powers in a particular region. In South Asia, though, Islamist terror groups and sections of the establishment have combined together for their agenda. The Theatre: Bangladesh, India, Pakistan
The Agenda: Islamists and their supporters want to destabilise democratically elected governments friendly to India. They want to Islamicise society, grab power, and arrest India's rise as an emerging power.
The Modus Operandi:
BangladeshThe BDR mutiny is said to be backed by anti-India forces, the Jamaat and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. The ISI’s support to the Jamaat-BNP is also suspected.
Why the mutiny: Ostensibly over the demand for a pay hike, but aimed at stalling the trial of those accused of war crimes in the liberation of Bangladesh in 1971. The trial would make both the BNP-Jamaat group as well as Pakistan hugely unpopular. Will strengthen the Hasina government, which has a pro-India tilt.
Pakistan Attack on Lankan team said to involve Lashkar, accused of masterminding 26\11. Perhaps backed by Islamists in ISI and army.
The gameplan: Take Lankan players hostage, swap them for Lashkar leader Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, now in custody.
The motive: Mumbai probe fast establishing links between Lashkar and Islamists in Pak establishment. Attack is a warning to Zardari not to implicate army officers in Mumbai horror. Also aimed to tell the world that Islamabad too is a victim of terror, and shouldn't be pushed to meet India's demands on Mumbai.
India Strategy for Bangladesh: Conveyed to anti-India elements it wouldn't sit idle should crisis escalate. Warned Dhaka and army against swift retaliation to prevent a ’75-like scenario, when many of Mujibur Rahman’s kin was killed.
Strategy for Pakistan: Dismisses all talks of RAW being behind the attack. Will keep pressure on Pakistan to dismantle the terror infrastructure. Try to strengthen democratic forces.
***In the relatively innocent 19th century, Great Britain and Russia engaged in a prolonged proxy war to establish their dominance over Central Asia and Afghanistan. Historians describe that competition between the imperial powers as the Great Game. Welcome now to the 21st century version of that game unfolding in South Asia. At times you can easily identify the actors: they’re no doubt Islamist radicals, hiding in the mountains or melting into the anonymity of urban sprawls.But backing them often are shadowy people in the establishment, hatching sinister plots to foment violence and instability in the region. Their long-term motive: destabilise elected governments in South Asia and create an ambience inimical to the politico-economic development of the region in general and India in particular. In other words, ensure India does not emerge as a power others in South Asia can’t compete with. In the short term, though, the aim of the players in the Great Game is to scuttle the investigations into the Mumbai terror attack that are unravelling too fast for both the jehadi group who perpetrated it and their supporters in the Pakistani establishment. Indeed, from the available evidence, it’s certain that the forces behind the Mumbai terror attack are precisely those who encouraged the personnel of the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) to mutiny as well as launched the audacious attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore.
Continued...Mumbai, Dhaka and Lahore are strands ultimately woven together into a macabre plot of death and destruction. Proof of this came during a closed-door meeting of a motley group of about 50 Congress leaders hailing from different states earlier this week. Addressing them in the capital’s Mavalankar Hall, foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee disclosed a conspiracy was afoot to destabilise the elected governments in Bangladesh and Pakistan. He let out a hitherto unknown fact to the audience: "I had to go out of my way to issue a stern warning to those trying to destabilise the Sheikh Hasina government in Bangladesh that if they continued with their attempts, then India would not sit idle." In other words, New Delhi had conveyed it was willing to take counter-measures in the Great Game, including the possibility of direct intervention.
The BDR mutiny in Dhaka
During the BDR crisis, Pranab wrote a letter to Prime Minister Hasina (portions of which were released to the media) expressing his dismay at the turn of events in Bangladesh.
The aim of these attacks? To derail the 26/11 probe, that points to elements in Pak establishment...
"As a close and friendly neighbour of Bangladesh, India wished to see a democratic, stable and prosperous Bangladesh," he wrote, and that "India stood ready to extend whatever support and assistance that Bangladesh may require at this juncture". At
the same meeting, Pranab also talked about the attack on the Lankan cricket team, describing it as an attempt by those "elements" in Pakistan who want to marginalise the democratic forces and scuttle investigations into the Mumbai attacks. Pranab’s is not the only voice expressing worries over the concerted efforts directed against India. "There’s no doubt that elements of the Pakistani army and the ISI were behind the Dhaka and Lahore incidents," former foreign minister and BJP leader Yashwant Sinha told Outlook.
So, why are the forces working in unison against India in South Asia? First, Bangladesh. The BDR rebellion here was ostensibly sparked off by the demand for a pay hike (see Soldiers Of Ill Fortune). New Delhi, however, feels the ruthless killing of army officers, who train and command BDR troops, indicated intricate planning. The story goes back about two years ago when the army installed a caretaker government to cleanse the system. The cleansing hurt the interests of many in Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its ally, the Jamaat-e-Islami. It was at this time that Islamist terrorists were hanged and the anti-India force marginalised.
Then in a remarkably free and fair election towards December-end, Hasina’s Awami League, which leans towards India in its policy, swept to power, making the BNP-Jamaat extremely nervous. Add to this Hasina’s steely determination to try for war crimes those who committed atrocities during the liberation of Bangladesh in 1971. Some Jamaat leaders too are expected to face trial. Says former diplomat Naresh Chandra, "The bottled-up resentment in the BDR against the army could have been a valid reason for the mutiny. But mischievous elements close to Khaleda Zia could also have played their part in fanning the violence."
The plan, Delhi feels, was to ensure a violent reaction from the Bangladesh army, thus plunging the country into chaos. A senior diplomat told Outlook that New Delhi advised Hasina and the Bangladesh army to tread cautiously and avoid creating a 1975-like situation, when most members of the country’s founder Mujibur Rahman’s family were gunned down. That was perhaps the reason why Hasina announced general amnesty to secure the surrender of BDR mutineers.