Breaking his silence for the past 15 years following the February 25–26, 2009 rebellion in the erstwhile Bangladesh Rifles, former army general Moeen U Ahmed demanded re-investigation into the carnage to uncover the plot and the plotters of the incident in both home and aboard.
‘A fresh probe by forming a new inquiry committee can find out the plot and plotters in both home and aboard in the BDR carnage,’ said Moeen in a video statement on YouTube from Florida in the United States.
In the 2009 rebellion 74 people, including 57 army officers, were killed.Â
Moeen said that the current home adviser to the interim government retired lieutenant general Jahangir Alam Chowdhury, who headed the inquiry committee for investigating the carnage, could not complete the terms of reference as most of the accused in the rebellion were in jail resulting in the committee being not able to take their statement.
‘Jahangir could not either take statements of those who had discussed the plot with the accused,’ said Moeen.
Mentioning that he had spoken to the home adviser after the formation of the new government, Moeen hoped that Jahangir Alam Chowdhury would reconstitute the inquiry committee and successfully find those responsible.
He said that many people were unaware of the role of the army and then chief of army staff in handling the rebellion, while some held negative perceptions.
Recalling the day, Moeen said that he had talked to the slain then border force director general Major General Shakil Ahmed over phone twice in the morning on February 25.
The first conversation was about providing some unused weapons from the army to the border force.
Mentioning that Shakil agreed to receive the weapons, Moeen said that he also believed that the border force chief had no inkling about what awaited them.
At 9:47am they had the last phone conversation.
Moeen also said that the most of the killings took place between 10:30am and 11:00am.
The army prepared the 46th Infantry brigade in one hour for an operation, which was dubbed ‘Operation Restore Order’, and the first pick-up reached the entry gate of Pilkhana at about 11:00am.
‘It seemed everything was part of a premeditated plan being executed as per the plan,’ said Moeen, quoting Shakil as his last words with him.
Moeen said that he tried to contact Shakil after 10:30am but could not contact him.