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| Bangladesh |
| JMB hand found in BDR carnage |
| 2009-03-13 |
| Commerce Minister Lt Col (retired) Faruk Khan yesterday linked the carnage at BDR Pilkhana headquarters to Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB). He said some of the border troops rounded up for alleged role in the bloody mutiny are found to have connections with JMB, the banned Islamist outfit responsible for terrorist attacks including the near-simultaneous countrywide blasts in 2005. Faruk, who has lately been tasked with coordinating the probes into February 25-26 bloodbath at Pilkhana, was talking to reporters at his secretariat office around noon. "We have gathered that a number of BDR jawans arrested in the mutiny case were involved in JMB somehow or other. I won't give more details as that might alert others having links to the mass killings," he said. The minister made the disclosure at a time when speculation runs rife that militant groups might have something to do with the BDR massacre. The way Col Gulzar Uddin Ahmed's body was mutilated adds weight to that line of reasoning. Gulzar, who had recently been posted to BDR from Rapid Action Battalion, was revered for his role in anti-militant drives. Criminal Investigation Department (CID), which is investigating the case in connection with the mass killings, however would not say anything about JMB links to the carnage that left 74 people including 52 army officers killed and scores injured. ASP Abdul Kahar Akand of CID said, "As investigation officer of the case I cannot say at this stage if JMB were involved. At least not until the investigation is complete." Recently, a team working under 'Operation Rebel Hunt' has raided in vain houses of four suspected BDR mutineers--Anwar, Ismail, Kawsar and Aftab--at Bagmara in Rajshahi, an area once considered a militant bastion. The four are believed to have been JMB operatives before joining the paramilitary force. Of them, Anwar gained notoriety as a close associate of Bangla Bhai, JMB operations commander executed along with Mujahideen supremo Shaikh Abdur Rahman and four others in 2007. He was allegedly involved in Awami League leader Yasin's murder at Bagmara in 2004. An officer who is among those in the hunt for the four, said around a dozen rebel soldiers took shelter at Ismail's house at Sakoa village in Bagmara after February 26. FARUK KHAN AT IBFB Coming out of the inaugural session of the annual general meeting of International Business Forum of Bangladesh (IBFB) at a city hotel yesterday morning, Faruk Khan said JMB links to the BDR massacre have been found, and that things would get clear after inquiry. Earlier, addressing the function there, he said, "The barbaric acts of violence at Pilkhana were a deep-rooted conspiracy against the country and its secular-minded people." Faruk blasted the opposition parties for 'not standing by the government' during the crisis stemming from BDR mutiny. He alleged they [BNP and allies] were nowhere to be seen on the first two days of the mayhem. They did not utter a word at that time. Meanwhile, a Dhaka court yesterday placed 12 more suspected BDR mutineers on five days' remand each for interrogation. Those remanded are subedar Gofran Mallick, havildar Rezaul Karim, lance nayeks Gausul Alam and Yusuf Ali, sepoys Joyanta Kumar Sarkar, Jamir Ali, Abdul Latif, Sohrab Hossain, Shariful Islam, Rafiqul Islam, Ismail Hossain and Masudur Rahman. Metropolitan Magistrate Mohammad Abdur Rahim passed the order after CID produced the 12 with a prayer seeking a 10-day remand for each. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 Was it a "foreign hand"? Or do they only find those in Pakistan? |
| Posted by: tu3031 2009-03-13 16:04 |
| #1 How did they identify the hand? Fingerprints? Was it still attached to an arm? |
| Posted by: Mitch H. 2009-03-13 15:58 |