Bangladesh Weekly Political Brief

Internal Developments

In a press conference, the Bangladesh Army revealed that it had foiled a coup that was being plotted by some junior officers who had been instigated by some non-resident Bangladeshis and former army officers. According to Brigadier General Mashud Razzak, the plotters were religious fanatics and wanted to ‘disrupt democracy by creating anarchy in the army’.

He disclosed that the army had set up a court of inquiry in late December last to investigate the entire matter and this COI was still in progress. The sensational disclosure by the army follows rumours of unrest within the army and opposition leader Khaleda Zia’s charge against the government that army officers had started being picked up and were going ‘missing’. Shortly after the army’s press conference, the Awami League government issued a statement promising severe punishment to the coup plotters.

The coup plot comes amidst growing political tensions between the ruling AL-led alliance and the right-wing, reactionary and Islamist opposition four-party alliance led by the BNP and comprising parties like the Jamaat Islami. Both the BNP and Jamaat Islami are facing the brunt of the war crimes trials in which almost the entire top leadership of the Jamaat has been hauled up for committing unspeakable and barbaric crimes against humanity during the Liberation war in 1971. The AL and its allies and civil society organisations have been accusing the BNP and Jamaat of trying to destabilise the government to protect the war criminals and these charges are being borne out by the outing of the coup plot. It is quite likely that as the plot gets uncovered, the political temperature could rise tremendously if the investigators find any involvement of the BNP and Jamaat in the conspiracy.

Meanwhile, the war crimes trials have started gathering pace and last week the prosecutors indicted BNP leader SQ Chowdhry in 15 acts of genocide and eight murders during the Liberation War. In addition he has been charged with 11 acts of torture, 9 acts of abduction, 10 acts of confinement, 8 acts of persecution, 8 acts of bodily harm, 7 acts of deportation and 1 rape. Formal charges were also presented against the Jamaat Islami leader Ali Mohammed Mojaheed. The government has also imprisoned the former Jamaat Islami Emir Golam Azam, the man who is alleged to have been the main perpetrator of the war crimes as Jamaat Islami chief during the Liberation war. Given his advanced age and frail health, Azam has been kept in a prison cell of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University. At the trials itself, a witness against the Jamaat Islami leader Delwar Hossein Saydee has accused Saydee’s lawyers of intimidation and said that they had come to his house to threaten him.

President Zillur Rehman has reportedly completed political consultations with all political parties regarding the reconstitution of the Election Commission and is expected to send a detailed report to the government. According to reports, the President has written a letter to the government asking it to form a five member ‘search committee’ comprising two high court judges and three heads of constitutional bodies, namely the Anti-Corruption Commission, Public Service Commission and Comptroller and Auditor General. The President’s Secretary has said that almost all the political parties had proposed a law for forming a ‘search committee’ for selecting the Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners. While the AL has said that it will support any decision taken by the President regarding the EC as long as it conforms to the constitution, the BNP has expectedly enough rejected the proposal to form a search committee and has reiterated its demand that the issue of caretaker government be resolved first before reconstituting the EC. The main opposition party has also emphatically opposed reappointment of the current CEC who is due to retire in February. Senior BNP leader Moudud Ahmed has gone to the extent of threatening the government with dire consequences if it continues to insist that the next general elections will not be held under a caretaker government.

The outgoing Chinese ambassador has said that China will give a $ 300 million soft loan to Bangladesh to set up a 3D IT village as part of the government’s Digital Bangladesh programme.

Bangladesh expects a rail link to Nepal and Bhutan within one year after the completion of the Syedpur-Chilahati track which will connect with the Haldibari railway station in India and allow a seamless railway link to Hashimara station on the Indo-Bhutan border and Jogbani station on the Indo-Nepal border. In addition, Bangladesh has started construction of the railway track from Dohazari to Ghundum (on Myanmar border) via Cox’s Bazar which could become part of the Trans-Asia railway line as and when Myanmar constructs a railway line up to Ghundum.