Untold Facts

No Intelligence Failure

There is a saying and a sort of belief among certain section that the toppling and killing of President Mujib in August 1975, Killing of President Zia in 1981 and the BDR Head Quarter Massacre on 25-26 February 2009 etc. had all been due to intelligence failures. The idea may be partly credible but not in every matter and content.

All the three occurrences are now part of Bangladesh history. They are recorded in documents and books not only at home but in abroad as well with degrees of variation. What made the variations? The clues of the so-called intelligence failures have to be found in all probable variations of variables, no matter credible or incredible.

The 1975 August army coup may be discussed first. The incident and some killings occurred in minutes in the early hours of the day involving killing and toppling of the President Mujib of Bangladesh. The toppling was not for fancy of a few army officers to grab the state power or for no good reason.

The change was historically significant on many accounts. First, the malevolent dictator and a sort of usurper from pluralism to one party BKSAL rule was overthrown rightly for re-establishing pluralism and multi-party democracy that had been the people’s real aspirations for long past. The change ushered hopes for change from utterly inefficient and incredibly corrupt government to more efficient and fairly corruption free government and society. The change further disbanded unconstitutional killer force, the RAKHSMI Bahini controlled though remote button from Delhi that had made independence, freedom and sovereignty of Bangladesh a farce and mockery. In three and a half years of Mujib’s rule this killer force alone tortured, maimed and killed unaccounted with impunity, the figure killed was accounted at nearly 40,00 by some groups. In addition the BKSAL leader and the President had his own private hoodlum forces also resorting to brutally killing, torturing and maiming any person they considered anti to the leader and his party. In such vicious backdrop the change was made through the coup by the patriotic army.

Even though there had been unfortunate killing in addition to the main actor the important sincere feeling of the people was a sort of great relief in the news. The fact was that the additional ones killed had happened to be the close kith and kin of the top leader, who as well unleashed terror in various spheres they controlled through political repression- his son and party student leader Sheikh Kamal, party youth leader nephew Sheikh Moni etc in administration- leader’s junior brother in law promoted to the top overnight Syed Ahmad, etc.- all in serious and murderous wrongful doings with absolute impunity for being close relations of the top boss.

There could have been no question of intelligence failure, because the whole government machinery including the various intelligence units and the people stood clearly and firmly for the change. Thus the intelligence units helped the coup operators in their own way. The coup had thus not only been legitimately pro-people but also deeply patriotic. As against the home intelligence, the Indian intelligence, the R&AW, provided Mujib with enough information of plot to topple him but he did care little (See, Ashok Raina, Insdide RAW, Delhi, 1982).

As for the President Zia’s killing at Chittagong in May 1981, Zia had the information about plot to assassinate him, but he cared not as he was a bold man and also a fatalist of the highest order. He was killed by a few isolated extremists engineered from behind as was report published in Indian media afterwards and by having had back ups and incitements from Indian intelligence, the R&AW. This killing being made thus by few isolated extremists few could have been promptly captured by the rest en masse immediately. How could this be a matter of intelligence failure?

In the BDR massacre incident of 25-26 February 2009, there was intelligence information particularly to the P.M. and so to her close ones in the government for which she declined to attend their function on the 25th morning. It was thus not any failure of intelligence information in advance but deliberate hush up one on the part of the P.M. herself for reasons best known to her and possibly to make what the massacre had taken unfortunate shape.

It is a fact that in all these killings a section of the army and the army intelligence had been involved in one way or the other. But there must have been no confusion that the 1975 August occurrence happened to be a glorious revolution for the army as that toppled the then most despised dictator and autocrat then termed BONGOSHOTRU (See, Anthony Mascarenhas, The Sunday Times, 17 August 1975) for opening avenues for pluralism and democracy on the one hand and freedom, liberty, Islamic values and sovereignty of Bangladesh, on the other, that all Bangladeshis shared and later on have been enjoying sweet fruits of the change. The other two occurrences of 1981 and 2009 happened to be very unfortunate and sad for they went against national interest, dignity and sovereignty, but there was no intelligence failure at all.

Author: B K Din