Staff Correspondent
The government on Monday formed a committee on the reconstitution of the border force in the wake of February 25–26 rebellion of soldiers in the Bangladesh Rifles headquarters in which at least 81, mostly army officers, were killed, a high official said.
‘I will do it at the earliest in the interest of the country,’ the BDR director general, Mainul Islam, told New Age after a meeting of the coordination body chaired by the commerce minister, Faruk Khan, at the Rifles headquarters. The meeting continued for three hours.
Mainul, who will head the committee on the rebuilding of the border force, said he would seek opinions of different forces including the army, Rapid Action Battalion, the police and Ansars in this regard.
‘It is difficult to carry out the responsibilities in the manner the force is being run now [after the rebellion],’ he said adding he would try to do his best to complete the process as early as possible.
‘We could not work out any timeframe as this is for the first time a force is being reconstituted in the country,’ the director general said.
As the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, earlier announced the paramilitary force would be reconstituted, Monday’s coordination meeting in principle decided formation of the reconstitution committee.
The other members on the committee will soon be co-opted from different agencies, Mainul said.
The commerce minister erleir told a press briefing in the BDR headquarters after the meeting that the committee would have seven to eight members.
The committee will submit its report after reviewing the structure of similar forces in other countries.
In reply to a question on the formation of a sub-jail inside the BDR headquarters, the minister said it had not been implemented. The suspects have been sent to jail through court to face prosecution.
On investigation and assistance from the international agencies, he said the Federal Bureau of Investigation had said the investigation was on the right track. The US agency helped the Criminal Investigation Department with modern technology.
As for his remarks on militancy links with the rebellion, the minister defended saying, ‘I received information from different channels and analysed them.’
He said crime scenes were detected almost every day and 56 crime scenes had so far been identified.
Record of the conversation inside the Durbar Hall and the closed-circuit television camera footage of the breaking of the 24 armouries have been found, he said.
He said the borders were protected and officers joined work in sectors and battalion headquarters.
The minister appealed to the countrymen to help the lawmen to arrest about 1,800 BDR soldiers who have been in hiding after the rebellion.
‘The soldiers who are absconding can immediately report to the cantonment or the nearest police station,’ he said.
Courtesy of NewAge
