AL govt linked to BDR mutiny : Fakhrul

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has alleged that Awami League and its government were involved in the 2009 BDR mutiny.

“The Awami League government gets unnerved whenever February 25 comes. One of their (govt’s) ministers said yesterday (Saturday) whether our leaders Begum Khaleda Zia and Tarique Rahman were involved in that carnage,” he told a discussion in Dhaka on Sunday.

The carnage at the Pilkhana Headquarters had left 57 army officers killed.

On that front, the BNP leader further said, “We would like to say very clearly that Awami League and its government were fully involved in this killing.

"With their direct cooperation and through their conspiracy and plan, this BDR carnage was carried out to turn Bangladesh into a weak subservient state and to completely demoralise the patriotic army of the country,” he added.

Fakhrul said the government’s involvement can easily be understood as it talked to the rebel leaders and made a negotiation with them at the time of the mutiny. “What kind of negotiation was it? You compromised with those who were killing the smart officers of our army."

As per the rules of the Army, he said the mutiny must be suppressed through intervention, not by another means. “Moeen U Ahmed was the then Army Chief who played the main role in destroying democracy in Bangladesh through 1/11 (political changeover) and who tried to hamper the country’s independence and destroy the army.”

On 25-26 February 2009, a cabal of the then Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) killed 74 people, including 57 army officers, of the paramilitary force at the Pilkhana Headquarters.

Fakhrul criticised the media for 'not running any news' on the BDR mutiny on Saturday.

“Unfortunately we note with sadness that yesterday (Saturday) was February 25, but there was not even a single column of news in any newspaper of the country about the horrific carnage that had taken place on that day,” he said.