Bangladesh Massacre: Killers Fleeing to Saudi Arabia

 Members of the intelligence agencies arrested another BDR troop member named Rafiqul Islam when he was also attempting to flee to Saudi Arabia. Rafiqul was trying to leave the country by Saudia, Saudi Arabian Airlines flight number SB-801 at noon.

Apparently, some influential quarters managed a safe exit for these killers to a number of foreign destinations right after the brutal massacre at the Bangladesh Riffles headquarters. Passports and visas of a number of killers were arranged in advance prior to the staging of the massacre. Photographs and other details of the fugitives will also be put online on the websites of Rapid Action Battalion and Bangladesh Police, a source said.

Meanwhile, people in the know have been requested to inform the Army Headquarters control room, apart from the nearest police station, about the runaway BDR rebels from the Bangladesh Rifles headquarters and different camps.

“Confidentiality of the informers will be protected,” said an ISPR release issuing the public notice on Wednesday when a countrywide drive code-named 'operation rebel hunt' for rounding up the mutineers is already underway.

The contact numbers of the Army Headquarters control room are: [880-2] 8712197, [880] 01713333 256.

It is further learnt that investigating agencies are trying to publish the photographs of the absconding BDR men and suspected killers.

US Federal Bureau of Investigation [FBI] has agreed to help Bangladesh in forensic investigation into the BDR carnage.

Acting Deputy State Department spokesman Gordon Duguid told a regular press briefing in Washington Tuesday that they have received a request from the Bangladesh government for the FBI help in forensic investigation.

“I believe the FBI has agreed to do that,” Duguid told a correspondent. He, however, could not give further details about when, where and how the FBI will work.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina sought the FBI assistance during telephone conversation with US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Richard Boucher on March 1. Boucher spoke on behalf of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and offered the US assistance.

Meanwhile, according to reports, it was learnt that, during the 2-day long massacre inside the BDR headquarters, at least 500 Arges grenades and a large number of arms and ammunitions disappeared from the place of occurrence. Security experts fear that disappeared grenades and arms would remain as a potential threat to country’s law and order situation.

The police on Wednesday recovered two live grenades from a toilet of outpatient department of Rangpur Medical College Hospital.

In another incident, grenade explosion on the premises of Chapainawabganj police station left a police inspector’s son dead and two other children injured on Wednesday noon.

The police said three children, two of them sons of two assistant sub inspectors, were injured as a bomb went off inside the boundary of the police station in the district headquarters at about 12:45pm.

‘A bomb exploded with a big bang when the children were playing behind the police barracks,’ said a police officer. The injured — Al Amin, 10, son of ASI [Assistant Sub Inspector] Ataur Rahman, Mamun, 7, son of ASI Rafique, and Mehedi, 10, son of cook of thana mess Khodeza — were taken to Sadar Hospital. They were shifted to Rajshahi Medical College Hospital with critical condition. Al Amin died at RMCH at about 6:30 pm on Wednesday, the sources said.

Political and defense analysts in Bangladesh believe it is of crucial importance in the interest of the nation that the February 25-26 massacre by troops against officers at the Bangladesh Rifles headquarters in the capital Dhaka and the concomitant carnage are thoroughly investigated, and the perpetrators and their instigators, if any, identified, arrested, prosecuted and punished. Such actions are needed to put all Bangladesh defense forces, military and paramilitary, on a stronger footing, which is very important for a nation to survive on in the international state system.

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