Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Pilkhana massacre VS Pakistan police academy attack

From:

There are many similarities in the terrorist attack on the police training academy in Pakistan and the BDR mutiny in Dhaka . Apparently there were 14-25 gunmen who entered the training compound and opened fire on cadets and police officers who were taken completely by surprise. The gunmen were heavily armed and committed to their task and their objective was to kill as many people as possible. The similarity between this attack in Pakistan and the BDR mutiny, however, ends there. The manner in which the Pakistan security forces promptly dealt with the threat was both efficient and utterly ruthless.

The following is a short description of what happened –

“Black-clad Pakistani commandos overpowered a group of militants who had seized a police academy, took cadets hostage and killed at least six of them Monday in a dramatic challenge to the civilian government that faces U.S. pressure to defeat Islamic extremists.

The security forces stormed the compound on the outskirts of Lahore to end the eight-hour siege by the grenade-throwing gunmen, with three militants blowing themselves up and authorities arresting four, officials said. At least three other unidentified bodies were recovered.” (AP - 12 die in bloody siege at Pakistan police academy (March 31, 2009)

If a bunch of commandos could achieve this in circumstances very similar to what occurred in Pilkhana then imagine the effect 2 dozen tanks and 6000 army soldiers would have had on the morale of the BDR mutineers.

When the Bangladesh armed forces were not permitted to do what they were trained to do the mutineers gained confidence and commenced on their killing spree (as the photos now appearing on the internet from the very start of the mutiny seems to suggest).

In light of the Pakistan security services response to the police academy terrorist attack and the outcome there it clearly puts the claims by the Bangladesh government that more lives would have been put at risk had a more aggressive posture been taken by the armed forces seems doubtful and extremely suspicious.

(What the AL government is now doing in the name of investigations into the Pilkhana massacre can only be described as political repression and victimization of opposition party members and this may also eventually include anyone else critical of this administration.)