With a great deal anger and disappointment the nation on Thursday observed the 12th anniversary of the Pilkhana carnage that left 74 people, including 57 army officers dead. The ghastly mutiny took place between February 25 and 26, 2009 and left the nation benumbed, as people stood aghast at the extent of the atrocity perpetrated at Pilkhana, the headquarters of Bangladesh Rifles (BDR), now Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), beside capital’s Dhanmondi.
Those two days remind us of one of the most shameful episodes of failure to act urgently and rightly to save the tragic loss of lives including a large number army officers and their women and children. The accountability has disappeared because we are so slavish.
It is not just the brutal massacre of lives and sexual abuse but that very valuable army officers had been removed from the army that called for special concern. The army could have stopped the savagery but they were not allowed to move till after main perpetrators allegedly left safely though backdoor. Though some were tried as the mutineers and many are agonising for second time trial of illegally possessing weapons. How there can be mutiny without using illegal weapons? The second trial may be technically right but not justice. We suggested long before they deserve presidential pardon and be freed.
Bangladesh has become a cruel country by association where justice and the rule of law do not prevail under political pressure. Outside the law enforcing agencies there is gangsterism to fear.
We are seen as a nation without backbone to stop politics of cruelty and discriminatory justice.
