The mutiny at the Bangladesh Rifles headquarters in Dhaka today has set off concerns in New Delhi about the implications this may hold for newly elected Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina who in all likelihood is up against an insurrection prompted by political rivals and extremist elements. Much has been happening after the Hasina government, swept back to power in a landslide last December, decided to hold trials against those responsible for the 1971 war crimes.

Only yesterday, Hasina was at the BDR headquarters where she gave a strong speech emphasising to “not allow anyone to use Bangladesh territory as a springboard for terrorist activity”. She asked BDR personnel to crack down heavily on smuggling activities, adding that smugglers were “enemies of the country and its people”.

Given that the BDR has been found notorious on both counts in the past, the political message was not lost on anyone because the paramilitary force is considered heavily penetrated at the lower and middle ranks by affiliates of Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and Jamiat-e-Islami (Bangladesh). The BDR rebels stormed into the headquarters today and captured the Army brass which heads and controls the outfit, killing at least two officers.

The principal concern from here is the possibility of this being controlled by disgruntled military officers who are now out of favour and are known BNP affiliates. Earlier this month, the Hasina government had removed Maj Gen Golam Mohammed as head of the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI) and replaced him with Maj Gen Mollah Fazle Akbar. Set up on the lines of the Pakistani ISI, the DGFI has close links with Islamic fundamentalists besides the Zia family. Reining in the DGFI was always among Hasina’s top priorities.

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