Security analysts call Peelkhana carnage anti-liberation plot

712

DHAKA, Feb 24, 2019 (BSS) – Security analysts today described the 2009

Peelkhala carnage as a well orchestrated plot against pro-liberation forces
against the anti-liberation ones to destabilize the country ousting the newly
formed Awami League government at that time.

“The conspirators’ objective was to oust the newly formed Awami League
government,” Major Gen (Retd) Mohammad Ali Sikder said as security analysts
and observers rallied at a discussion at the Jatiya Press Club coinciding
with the anniversary of the carnage 10 years ago.

He added the plotters mobilized the soldiers to stage the so-called mutiny
in the then Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) clearly to create “an anarchy and civil
war in the country” as they simultaneously tried to spearhead misleading
propaganda as the mutiny was underway.

Shikdar said mutineer BDR soldiers at Peelkhana were equipped with heavy
weapons like mortars, heavy machine guns, light machine guns, grenades and
they could have resisted and could have retaliated military counterattacks
causing further bloodshed.

“The Peelkhana mutiny had exposed the new government to an acid test which
it overcame successfully,” he said.

The speakers said the plotters design eventually was upset particularly due
to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s firm decision, wisdom and patience which
drew to an end to the mutiny within 36 hours though it had claimed 74 lives,
57 of them being brilliant military officers.

Fellow security expert Major Gen (retd) Abdur Rashid agreed with Shikdar
saying Awami League’s election to power caused anti-liberation forces
heartburn, which led them to hatch the mutiny plot.

He said the plotters made all out efforts to mislead the nation throwing
into air false information constantly in those hours.

“The decision of the then Awami League government over the Peelkhana issue
at that crucial time was very practical and democratic,” he said.

Sheikh Hasina’s handling of the situation with wisdom, patience and
intelligence also drew global communities appreciation.

A senior journalist at that time, former Jatiya Ptress Club president and
incumbent Awami League lawmaker Shafiqur Rahman joined the discussion as a
special speaker.

former secretary Nasir Uddin Ahmed, renowned cultural personality Pijush
Bandyopadhyay and veteran hockey player Faisal Ahsanullah also spoke, among
others, at the function titled “publicity-propaganda on Peelkhana carnage”
organized by Bangladesh Online Activist Forum (BOAF).

BOAF President Kabir Chowdhury Tonmoy chaired the function while Jagannath
University Prof Dr Milton Biswas made the key-note presentation.

Shafiqur Rahman said the BDR carnage plotters used the propaganda
techniques of anti-liberation forces in 1971 and Bangabandhu killers in 1975.

“Their aim was total cleansing of the pro-liberation forces and the
freedom fighters,” he said.

The journalist turned politician questioned why BNP chairperson Khaleda
Zia left her cantonment house in a hurry just ahead of the beginning of the
mutiny on February 25, 2009.

He said investigations later revealed that Khaleda’s son Tarique Rahman
phoned her before the mutiny for 45 times.

He also asserted that no matter how many conspiracies the BNP-Jamaat clique
hatches, they would not be successful.

Cultural personality Pijush Bandyopadhyay alleged that the motive behind
the Peelkhana carnage was to erase the pro-liberation forces from this soil.

The BDR mutineers revolted on February 25, 2009, coinciding with their
annual BDR Week.