April 02, 2007

Something cooking in Bangladesh: another coup?

There is a rumor all around that there is something fishy going on in the Dhaka Cantonment area. It all started with this news report:

On Sunday morning the cantonment authorities switched off all mobile phone services in three DOHS areas—Banani, Mohakhali and Baridhara—Sunday for unknown reasons . It immediately collapsed the mobile phone coverage in the DOHS areas of Banani, Mohakhali and Baridhara. People residing in the lower floors of apartments are the worst victims while occupants of the upper floors
get faded signals on mobile phones.
(BDNews24)

In the late Sunday night rumors were floating around that there might be a coup going on in Bangladesh. Some also predicted that the current Army Chief Lieutenant Gen. Moeen may be killed. He has done some pretty bold comments recently and Nazzina mentioned:

Lt Gen Moeen is not a man of such gut to fight back against former BNP’s conspiracy. Certainly he had no match to the intellect(?!) coming from his (ex?) friend Sayeed Iskander, Khaleda Zia and Tareque and even Moudud. He’s sitting on that chair as Chief of Army Staff because BNP showed their love towards him, possibly strong trust as well. During his tenure, the man didn’t do anything amazing that could be notable. Suddenly, everything changes when GOC 9 Div (Savar) Maj Gen Masud decided he could cover his (Moeen) back. So there we got a soft coup, ousting BNP in a time when everyone thought it’s impossible. With his newfound courage, Lt Gen Moeen speaking up, expressing his thoughts which he believes to be right.

His statements like "Nation has failed to recognise father of nation", and raising issues of prosecuting war criminals and fight corrupt politicians are probably too much for certain quarters. So what if the loyals of Syed Iskander and co. try to remove him. Because BNP suffered the most damage after the January 11 state of emergency.

Until nothing is confirmed lets assume its a April fool's day joke. Lets hope that it remains that way for the betterment of Bangladesh.

Update: The news may be a rumor only as Lt. Gen. Moeen was out in the Dhaka Sheraton making a speech:

"Bangladesh will have to construct its own brand of democracy recognising its social, historical and cultural conditions with religion being one of several components of its national identity," (BDNews24)

Now that is some weird talk. Some reported that army presence on the street was a bit more than what was a day ago. And telephone call attempts to Bangladesh have a very low success rate. But its refreshing to hear that nothing happened. Or he might have culled an attempt to remove him, no one knows.

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