Footage to help investigation greatly; another FBI team shortly; govt waits for post-mortem on BDR men’s death
Staff Correspondent
Investigators of the BDR carnage found audiotapes and footage of the BDR officers’ meeting held on February 25 morning at Darbar Hall in Pilkhana and the CCTV footage of arms being looted from the BDR arsenal.
Commerce Minister Faruk Khan, assigned to coordinate the work of probe committees, disclosed it yesterday evening to reporters after holding the third meeting of a probe-coordination committee at the BDR headquarters.
Faruk said the investigators are now looking into the audiotapes and footage of the Darbar Hall meeting and the CCTV footage of arsenal looting.
The footage would greatly help investigators identify the BDR jawans involved in the killing of BDR officers and looting of arms.
CID sources said it has a cell, led by an assistant superintendent of police (ASP), looking into the footage to identify the criminals.
According to sources in the cell, they are watching the footage to grab stills of suspects. The stills would be shown to witnesses so that they could identify the jawans involved in the carnage.
They said they would also give the photos to BDR authorities so that they could identify and provide details of the suspects.
BDR Director General Brig Gen Mainul Islam, chiefs of Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Special Branch of Police (SB), Rapid Action Battalion (Rab), other agencies concerned and senior officials of all three BDR carnage probe bodies were present at the probe-coordination committee meeting.
Faruk said a committee headed by the BDR director general has been formed to submit a report on restructuring and renaming BDR.
On the recent mysterious deaths of BDR jawans, Faruk said the real cause of their deaths would be clear after receiving their autopsy reports.
Meanwhile, the government probe committee was given four more days yesterday to submit its report. It had sought seven days’ time.
This is the second time the committee sought time. Headed by retired bureaucrat Anisuzzaman Khan, the committee was supposed to submit its report yesterday. Initially, it was supposed to file the report by March 9.
Asked about the necessity of the 11-member government probe body when the army and the CID are investigating the incident separately, Faruk said, “The army is probing the incident for its own purpose, the CID is carrying out the criminal investigation and the government formed the probe body for the state’s own purpose.”
Meanwhile, a few hundred family members of BDR jawans demonstrated for several hours in front of the BDR headquarters gate-1 demanding they be allowed to visit the jawans.
However, Faruk said that they have decided not allow family members visit jawans at Pilkhana anymore. He said family members would only be allowed to make visits under special circumstances.
Talking about the progress of investigations, the commerce minister said the investigators so far identified 714 suspects and of them 482 are under arrest.
Among the arrestees, 80 persons, who were placed on remands, gave their confessional statements before investigators under Section-161 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC).
“So far 56 crime scenes have been discovered. Crime scenes and evidence of crime are being discovered almost every day,” he said, adding, “The investigators have been screening all 7,000 BDR members inside Pilkhana so that real culprits are identified and the innocent are not harassed.”
The commerce minister said the FBI team, which left Dhaka yesterday morning, expressed satisfaction over Bangladeshi investigators’ probe efforts.
He said another FBI team would come to Dhaka three weeks later.
Replying to a question, the commerce minister said the FBI and Scotland Yard teams helped Bangladeshi investigators identify criminals with fingerprints and sweat. They also helped identify BDR jawans, who had masked their faces, in the footage, the minister said.
Faruk said 1,800 BDR men have not reported to their stations. “Actually, not all of them are guilty…they did not join due to fears while some are absconding with arms and ammunition.”
A total of 95 BDR carnage suspects were shown arrested yesterday and sent to jail.
US Ambassador James Moriarty after meeting Faruk Khan, foreign ministers Dipu Moni, and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Adviser Tarique Siddique on Sunday noted that the scale of the investigation suggests that it could take a considerable amount of time to complete.
Courtesy of The Daily Star
