Military protests Jafarullah’s fresh remarks regarding army chief

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DHAKA, Oct 15, 2018 (BSS) – Bangladesh army today called “false, misleading
and completely motivated” the fresh comments of “Ganashasthya Kendra Trustee
Dr Jafarulah Chowdhury in a recent press conference that he called to clarify
his earlier remarks in a TV talk show about their chief General Aziz Ahmed.

“Dr Jafarulah Chowdhury said (in the press conference) that he wrongly
chose the word court martial instead of court of enquiry (regarding the army
chief) – this piece of information he gave is not true either,” the army said
in a statement.

Referring to Chowdhury’s press conference on October 13, 2018 the statement
said “General Aziz neither faced any court martial nor a court of inquiry
during in his long career in the army”.

It said Chowdhury actually did not try to correct his earlier untrue
remarks in his press conference and “it is clear from his remarks that he
made evil attempts to misguide all serving army personnel of all ranks”.

The statement said simultaneously he made evil efforts to “damage the
reputation of the army chief on the national and international level and
belittle the Bangladeshi army, a symbol of the country’s independence and
sovereignty”.

It alleged that Chowdhury had “tried tactfully” to relate army to the
‘arges grenade’ used in the August 21, 2004 attack as he joined the talk show
titled “Sampadokyo” in private Somoy TV on October 9 evening with an
“ulterior motive” just a day ahead of the verdict in the Aug 21 grenade
attack.

The second army statement on the same issue in two days came after it
filed overnight a general diary against Chowdhury which subsequently was
turned to be a treason case.

It said Bangladesh Army is a creditable and trustworthy institution of the
people and therefore all media outlets should verify information regarding
the force before publishing any information about it.

“Publishing and presenting misinformation (about army) is a serious offence
because it causes negative impact on the personnel of Bangladesh Army as well
as the vested quarter can serve their ill purposes,” it said.

Earlier, on October 13, Bangladesh army in a statement said Chowdhury’s
“completely untrue and motivated” remarks in the talk show affected every
military personnel’s morale, the force’s solidarity and extremely belittled
the army’s top position.

“In a different way it misled every serving military personnel and affected
negatively their morale. Besides such a misleading campaign harmed the
solidarity and unity of a disciplined force like army which is unexpected,”
it read.

In the talk show titled “Sampadokyo” Chowdhury said the incumbent army
chief was military’s Chattogram area commandant or general officer commanding
(GOC) when a huge quantum of military weapons and ammunitions “went missing,
were stolen or sold out” from there.

He said the incident exposed General Aziz to a court martial.

“It was an untrue and irresponsible comment . . . because General Aziz in
his service life never served as the GOC or commandant of Chattagram,” the
army said in its previous statement.