The Myanmar Armed Forces launched many attacks inside Bangladesh, including repeated bombing sorties within Bangladeshi territories.
Almost two and a half years since the February 2021 coup that toppled the democratically elected civilian government of the National League for Democracy, Myanmar’s military junta is losing control of much of the country. The junta has already lost large swathes of territory to ethnic militias fighting longstanding insurgencies in the borderlands and new groups of fighters organized under the People’s Defense Militias that sprung up after the coup. It now faces threats even in the biggest cities, where it had until recently maintained a degree of brutal control.
Myanmar’s junta has launched airstrikes after the Arakan Army (AA) seized a police outpost in Maungdaw Township on the Bangladeshi border in northern Rakhine State.
On Wednesday, the AA occupied the outpost, killing 19 junta police officers and seizing firearms, ammunition and other equipment. According to residents, the regime conducted three airstrikes using jet fighters and helicopters.
Immediately after the February 2021 coup, the junta responded to nonviolent protests by a wide range of Myanmar’s citizens with escalating brutality that eventually turned to mass killings and arrests. At the time, it seemed to be in strong control of much of the country, including the largest cities and the central ethnic Burman heartland. The country’s ethnic armed organizations continued to exist, but many were weakened from losing territory to the armed forces in the preceding years.
China, Russia back Myanmar Junta
Even China and Russia, which have backed the junta and sees Myanmar as a strategically critical investment destination, are playing both sides of the fence. Despite its pariah status, Beijing has continued to plough money into the country and supplied the military with weapons. It has provided the junta with diplomatic cover at international forums.
RAW controls the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI)
The BDR carnage was a planned massacre of the Army to eliminate many of the bright, upright and capable officers to render it unable to defend the independence of Bangladesh anymore. Some of the corrupt political leaders, including a few Generals and Senior Officers, were the local players besides the neighboring foreign Intelligence Agency, RAW. This is an open secret to all ranks of Bangladesh Military Forces and the mass population by this time. The collaborators of the BDR massacre are now trying to save its key planners by hiding the real issues, launching mass cases against BDR soldiers, and killing those who know the facts. The whole massacre was about a step ahead to make the country a surrogate state of India like ‘Sikkim’. These patriotic martyred officers were one of the major obstacles of this vice plan.
Some of the top brass of Bangladesh Army, e.g. present CGS General Sheikh Mohammad Shafiuddin Ahmed, DG DGFI Major General Hamidul Haque, Logistic Area Commander Major General Mizanur Rahman Khan, Brigadier General Motiur, ADG, DGFI and many others have sold their loyalty to RAW to serve their purpose in this country.
DGFI has become, by this time, an active tool of neighboring Intelligence Organization, RAW, to achieve the objective of making this country a surrogate state. Some of the senior officials of DGFI are receiving regular salaries and benefits from RAW for doing the job on their behalf. DGFI has been divided into two parts recently. While the common men and officers of DGFI are unaware of the situation, the RAW controlled part of DGFI has setup separate safe houses and facilities to serve their purpose. In many cases, RAW is operating in disguise of DGFI with its full consent. The common men and officers of DGFI are highly dissatisfied as they are being misused for the purpose of betraying the nation. They know that in times of calamity, they will not get shelters in neighboring India like the ‘payroll agents’ who have secured these facilities abroad.
Sheikh Hasina uprooted patriot military officers in favor of India
Joy, Sheikh Hasina’s son making financial scandals in the USA, lied when he said: “65 percent soldiers of Bangladesh Army soldiers and officers studied in religious organizations such ‘Madrasha’ – to keep some of the Western countries happy on their performance against terrorism. In fact, Joy and other key planners were planning to eliminate all the officers with uprightness, honor and dignity from Bangladesh Army to achieve their ultimate aim.
The BDR massacre was the start of it. Now the 2nd phase of the BDR massacre is taking place by arresting and abducting, officially and unofficially, the bright officers like Lt Col Haseen, Lt Col Zaydee and retired Lt Col Ehsan Yousuf and so on.
Even before this, five officers were arrested and sent to jail with a plea that could not be proved at all. It’s an open secret to all that the crime of those five was nothing but their demand of a proper trial of the criminals, including the planners of the BDR massacre and raising their voices for that purpose. Many other officers had to go for forced retirement, even some with forced ‘voluntary retirement’ in the recent past. Every week 2/3 of officers are being arrested/abducted by DGFI with different pleas. Recently, Maj Zia of MIST was arrested, and now he is fleeing with his life here and there. On the other hand, some of the serving officers are interviewed by a joint team of RAW and DGFI in Chittagong and elsewhere. Nobody knows how many officers are arrested and abducted in different divisions till now as they have successfully created mistrust among the officers to not to share this kind of information.
All these are done with the same aim of rendering the Bangladesh Army ineffective day by day and its ultimate elimination, which is a major step to turn Bangladesh into another ‘Sikkim’.
India sold defense articles to Bangladesh to make its military subordinate forces to India
Bangladesh imported defense-related items from India under the $500 million Line of Credit provided by New Delhi as several identified equipment are being fast-tracked, according to Indian Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla.
So far the Bangladesh Army has given its approval for three platforms under the Line of Credit and these include 11 Mine Protective Vehicles from the Tata Group at an approximate cost of US$2.2 million; seven portable steel bridges (Bailey) which will cost around $2.2 million; and five Bridge Layer Tanks (BLT-72) for approximately $10 million.
It also plans to procure bulletproof helmets, heavy recovery vehicles; armored engineer reconnaissance vehicles, Mahindra XUV 500 off-road vehicles, and other vehicles which are hard top from the same company for around $2.35 million. There are many other proposals related to extension of the assembly unit for a machine tools factory.
Bangladesh navy is looking for an oil tanker, floating dock, logistics ship, and ocean-going tug.
India is keen to offer radars, helicopters, ship-building services, mortars, rockets, missiles, support vehicles and engineering equipment, and more.
Indian RAW controls the Bangladesh army
Beside this vice plan for Bangladesh Army, they plan to erase the Bangladeshi identity of this Army and the mass population at large. In the Army, the Generals and senior officers with the ‘RAW controlled group’ have demonstrated unbecoming attitude towards many Muslim practices. Some of those Generals forcefully made young officers shave their beards.
Officially and unofficially, DGFI and other intelligence organizations are making a list of personnel who have grown beards. This list is updated and checked almost weekly basis. They portray to all as if the growing beard is a crime in this country, whereas in neighboring India, many grow beards and put on their turbans in all the formal and informal Army gatherings.
They have made a separate list of those officers and soldiers who offer five times prayers. Even they have made a separate list of those who attend the mosques for prayers. In places, local intelligence staffs attend the five times prayers with their ‘walkie-talkie’ set turned on with high volumes to let the people at the mosque know that ‘intelligence people are in and around’
Besides the list of officers whose wives adhere to the Islamic dress code, Hijab, they have now made a separate list of soldiers whose wives adhere to the same. Slowly and gradually, they have created an atmosphere of terror among the adherents of the Islamic faith.
Why this group is doing all these is also very important. They know from history that if the Muslim identity of this Army and the country remains intact, their dream of turning this country into another ‘Sikkim’ will never come true. So, their second objective is to water down the Bangladesh identity of this Army and the country.
Strong Myanmar military
The “Stockholm International Peace Research Institute” and “Global Firepower.com” sources say that the size of the Myanmar army is 516,000, including 46,000 regular and 1,10,000 reserve soldiers. In addition, Myanmar has a total of 264 military aircraft, including 127 warplanes, 86 helicopters, including 9 attack helicopters, 886 sophisticated tanks, 4212 different types of missiles, 1200 armored military vehicles, at least 200 missiles in air defense, 392 gun systems, 1200 anti-tank weapons, and 155 warships including 27 naval frigates, 40 patrol craft.
Since the 1990s, Myanmar has focused on arms procurement. Even after signing the disarmament agreement, it has not stopped buying arms. On the contrary, it has become easier for Myanmar to buy weapons since 2012. In the meantime, Russia, China, Israel, Ukraine, India, Belarus, Belgium, Switzerland, Poland and other countries have sold a large amount of weapons to them.
China has already given Myanmar the most cooperation in the purchase of military equipment. They have sold the most warplanes, warships and ammunition to Myanmar. Russia and Ukraine are not far behind. Russia sold land-launched missiles to Myanmar. Ukraine has sold warships. On the other hand, Israel has sold tanks and armored personnel carriers.
Myanmar bought the most aircraft from China 120, Russia 64 and Poland 35. Russia (2971), China (1029) and Belarus (102) sold the most missiles to Myanmar. China (21), India (3) and the former Yugoslavia (3) have sold naval warships to Myanmar. China (125), Serbia (120) and Russia (100) sold various types of ammunition, artillery. Armored vehicles and tanks were sold by China (696), Israel (120) and Ukraine (50).
Worsening situation of the Bangladesh military
The signs and symptoms of this vice plan of turning this country into another ‘Sikkim’ at the national level are: giving away transit facilities to India without any financial benefits by destroying many of the river channels and road systems, reducing the presence of the Army at the Chittagong Hill Tracts, independent identities from the constitution, security operations of Indian security forces in Sylhet and elsewhere inside the country denying the rights of an independent state, formulating women and education policies against the religious customs and norms of mass population, saving the culprits of share market scandals, zero resistance against illegal ‘Tipai Mukh’ dam, no resistance against regular killing of innocent Bangladeshi population by Indian Border Security Forces (BSF) and destroying the whole economic system of the country etc. These are not the ends but the introduction of the incoming phases. Bangladesh will witness these kinds of events in manifolds if they go unchallenged. If these are not attacks on the independence of a state, then what are these? If Bangladesh Army receives its salary to defend the country’s freedom, it must act in these situations.
RAW controls Bangladesh army Generals
The RAW-controlled group considers those outside them to be obstacles to their vicious plan. So, they will sack and forcefully retire those senior Generals who are not with them just after the Winter Collective Training (WCT). The timeline is WCT because those Generals may move against them upon receiving such decisions as they are with troops deployed on the ground, and it’s easier to move out from the exercise areas.
After neutralizing these Generals, they will get hold of other senior and mid-level officers whom they consider obstacles to their path. They have a plan for the student officers of MIST, those who recently passed or presently studying there, to remove them from the service in any way. They will create an issue against every one of them, the way they created false issues against the five officers sent to jail or Lt Col Haseen etc. That is their ultimate tool to manage the naive ones. The declaration of handing over the land documents of the Army Officers Housing Society (AOHS) is their trump card to keep everybody satisfied and dreaming till that time.
After dealing with the Army, they will eliminate Khaleda Zia, half of the ‘Minus Two Formula’. The next half of the same formula will take place after the 2nd so-called ‘1/11’ in the plea to save the country. Although they would like to do it with the consent of Sheikh Hasina, they want to eliminate her either to have a free run. Indian RAW, by this time, is sure that the present government cannot deliver them their desired fruits by going against the public demands. So, they have chosen their other alternative, the proxies from the Army – this time more decisively than the previous ‘1/11 group’.
Major General Mamun khaled is now making a new palace at his Army residence at Dhaka cantonment with a desire to stay there for decades and rule the country.
None to rescue the Bangladesh military
The mid-level officers (Lt Col and below) have decided to rise in this grave situation of the Army and the motherland itself. Otherwise, the Bangladesh Army and the independence of this country are at stake.
They will get hold of the planners of the BDR mutiny first and bring them to justice and free the BDR soldiers who are not defaulters. Since this mass arrest is an obstacle created by this wicked group to deny justice for the original criminals.
They will also free all the illegally detained officers and men immediately. All the officers and men unduly sacked and forcefully retired will be reverted in the Army immediately.
They will stop the present fraud Army Officers Housing Society (AOHS) project in which land is forcefully occupied with the help of criminals. Rather they have decided to convert all the existing ‘Golf Grounds’ to Army Housing Society. Maintaining huge Golf Grounds is a foolish luxury for a poor country like Bangladesh. These are the places where serving Army Generals turn into diplomats and politicians rather than true soldiers.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina never will be handed over Army’s leadership role to the existing Army Generals who are honest, dynamic, non-partisan and true patriotic soldiers.
All diplomatic ties with India will be frozen until they stop killing the innocent Bangladeshi population and hand over the killers of the BDR massacre.
Furthermore, they will be forced to comply with International norms and standards regarding sharing of river water and constructing dams. All transit facilities should be frozen until Bangladesh receives similar facilities from India or proportional financial benefits.
Conclusion
Interestingly, some Army Generals are already taking sides with mid-level officers sensing the impending changes. They have vowed their help and support to the mid-level officers in this grave situation of the Army and the country under Prime Minister Shiekh Hasina.
The mid-level officers could bring all necessary changes to put Bangladesh’s military and the country on the right track.
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