& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

Hostile grilling led to deaths

Hasina raised the 'fishy1 issue with Gen Moeen

Star Report
Aggressive interrogation techniques employed by young officers from the army, navy, and air force had led to the deaths of some BDR jawans after the February 2009 Pilkhana mutiny.
Major General Mollah Fazle Akbar, the then director general of the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI), told the US envoy in Dhaka on May 11, 2009 that several older jawans had died of natural causes or committed suicide while aggressive interrogation techniques by the armed forces officers had led to the deaths of some jawans.
As the then US ambassador to Dhaka James F Moriarty
met Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on April 27,2009, she had also agreed there was "something fishy" about the deaths and said she had raised the issue with then army chief Gen Moeen U Ahmed.
These were revealed through US embassy cables posted on August 30 this year by whistleblower website WikiLeaks.
Over 70 BDR jawans died, said to be of natural causes or by suicides, but under questionable circumstances during the “Operation Rebel Hunt” launched in March 2009, a week after 74 people including 57 army officials were killed during the February 25-26 mutiny at Pilkhana Headquarters of Bangladesh Rifles (now Bangladesh Border Guard).
According to one leaked cable, the then DGFI chief General Akbar said in an effort to quickly quiz some seven to eight thousand jawans in custody, the government had pulled in dozens of military officers.
The officers did not have any interrogation experience and had exceeded their authority during the interrogations, he added.
"The government now realised its mistake and the Prime Minister had shared with Akbar her concern about the custodial deaths," the cable reads. General Akbar added the government had put the word out that the deaths
must stop.
“Akbar was emphatic on the issues of DGFI's involvement in the interrogations and stated no DGFI officers were involved or present in any of the cases where the BDR jawans died while in custody."
According to a second cable, at the April 27 meeting then US ambassador James F Moriarty expressed concern over the continuing custodial deaths of border guards accused of involvement in the mutiny.
Moriarty said the US government and human rights organisations were concerned that the deaths, officially reported as suicides and heart attacks, were actually extra] udicial killings.
Sheikh Hasina claimed security personnel also were forcing captured border guards to make statements implicating government officials from her Awami League in the mutiny, reads the cable.
Hasina, however, insisted others were behind the mutiny. She believed some members of the outlawed terrorist group Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) were recruited into BDR during the 2001 -2006 BNP rule.
“She also noted some of the mutineers wore sandals and had long hair and thus could not have been members of the Bangladesh Rifles, who were required to trim their hair short,” the cable adds.
At a meeting with Foreign Minister Dipu Moni, another cable said, the US ambassador noted that the government had decided to authorise army officers to participate in "Operation Rebel Hunt" to capture BDR fugitives after the carnage.
The ambassador stressed the importance of avoiding human rights abuses during the search. The foreign minister readily agreed, the cable said.
At that time different human rights organisations both local and international expressed deep concern over the custodial deaths.
Another cable said the stands-off ends but it will have long-lasting governance and counterterrorism implications for Bangladesh. The crisis appears to be testing what is widely perceived to be tenuous civilian control over the military, said the cable released by the embassy on February26,2009.
While Hasina's instincts appeared to be to avoid bloodshed to whatever extent possible, her political allies acknowledged pressure from within the army to avenge the deaths of their officers.
In a note the cable said the military has a long history of political involvement, most recently as the key supporter of the 2007-2008 caretaker government whose anti-corruption drive and democratic reforms targeted many leading politicians, including Hasina.