Bangladesh Army says Zafrullah’s remarks about its chief are ‘irresponsible, untrue’

The army has dismissed Zafrullah Chowdhury’s comments about its chief in a TV programme as “irresponsible, untrue and intentional”.

The pro-BNP professionals’ leader has also told bdnews24.com that the comments he made on army chief General Aziz Ahmed in a Somoy TV talk show were “wrong”.

Zafrullah, a trustee of the Gonoshasthaya Kendra, took part in the show as a discussant on the night after a tribunal delivered the verdict in Aug 21 grenade attack cases on Wednesday.

He claimed Gen Aziz was “court-martialled after arms and ammunition had been stolen from Chattogram when the army chief was the general officer commanding there”.

The Army Headquarters issued a rejoinder and the TV station aired it with its own statement.

“Incumbent Chief of Army Staff General Aziz Ahmed has never been GoC or commandant in Chattogram during his career,” reads the rejoinder.

Gen Aziz worked as the commander of the 33rd Artillery Brigade in Cumilla from September 2010 to June 2011, the commander of the 6th Independent Air Defence Artillery Brigade at Mirpur in Dhaka from June 2011 to May 2012 and the GoC of the 33rd Infantry Division in Cumilla from May 2012 to December 2012, according to the army statement.

“No incident of theft or loss of arms or ammunition took place in Chattogram or Cumila cantonments in the mentioned time,” it says.

“It is particularly mentionable here that incumbent Chief of Army Staff General Aziz Ahmed never faced court-martial in his long and colourful military career,” the rejoinder says.

Zafrullah made the comments “intentionally” and those “clearly appear to be a heinous and an evil attempt to degrade the image of a state entity like the army and its chief in the eyes of the public”.

Reached for his reaction to the army rejoinder, Zafrullah told bdnews24.com: “I said court-martial…it was a mistake on my part. There was a court of inquiry.”

After the army issued the rejoinder, Somoy TV said they can do little to prevent the comment of a panellist, even if he or she says something wrong, being aired in a live programme.

It asked the people who join such programmes to act more responsibly.