Timely military action could have stopped Pilkhana massacre: inquiry commission

"The armed forces command and law-enforcing agencies of the time did not take timely decisions and stood inactive as the crime was carried out," the panel chief says

The national independent inquiry commission formed into the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) massacre at Pilkhana believes that timely action could have prevented the massacre.

At a press conference held at the new Science Laboratory building in Dhaka on Wednesday, panel chief ALM Fazlur Rahman said: "The armed forces command and law-enforcing agencies of the time did not take timely decisions and stood inactive as the crime was carried out."

He believes that they did not take effective steps to prevent the massacre during the mutiny and added that the law enforcement and intelligence agencies failed in their duties.

"The information we have received so far shows that the then intelligence agencies showed extreme negligence and failure in discharging their duties."

The commission’s president said that, due to the effort to solve the problem politically and the lack of action by armed forces and troops, crimes were carried out that day.

He also believes attempts were made to influence the incident.

Fazlur said the two investigation commissions formed previously to probe the incident tried to redirect the incident.

"An attempt has made to bring in the topic of militancy to divert the investigation and take it in a different direction."

He also said that several pieces of information had been collected from victims and eyewitnesses about foreign involvement in the mutiny and the killings.

Stating that this information is being verified and analysed, he said: "According to the information received so far, the commission believes that this brutal killing and other crimes could have been prevented if military action had been taken in time."

He said that the testimony of 158 people has been recorded so far. Awami League leaders Mirza Azam and Jahangir Kabir Nanak have testified online.

He told the press conference that the testimonies of more than 50 people, including that of ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina, are still pending.

Regarding the extension of the commission's term, he said, "This is a time-consuming task. A request has been made to extend the term until Sept 30 to submit the final report."