The visiting agents of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation on Monday began the groundwork for probing the rebellion in the Bangladesh Rifles headquarters that killed more than fifty army officers late last month, said officials.
   ‘The members of the advance team examined the evidences we have collected ever since the investigation was launched into the rebellion,’ the investigation officer, Abdul Kahhar Akond, a senior assistant superintendent of the Criminal Investigation Department, told reporters at the main gate of the BDR headquarters.
   He said that he had a meeting with the two-member FBI team, which arrived in Dhaka on Sunday, to assess the situation and prepare a report for the main investigation team, expected to arrive some time later.
   The FBI assured the police that they would help Bangladesh, as much as the government allows, to conduct the investigation into the 33-hour mutiny that was quelled on February 26, and the killings, looting and hostage taking.
   The CID investigator said that probing an incident of such magnitude will definitely need time. He pointed out that local investigators have very few forensic apparatus for testing the evidences left by the criminals.
   ‘We sought many sorts of technical support from the FBI. They include forensic tests, DNA tests, matching of fingerprints and using ballistic technology to identify the assailants who were masked during the rebellion,’ said the CID official who had visited the scene of crime.
   Three probe committees — one by the home ministry, one by the army and the other by the CID — are presently probing the February 25-26 incidents.
   The CID’s investigation will be taken into consideration to try the mutineers as the probe is being carried out in line with a case filed with the Lalbagh police station, accusing more than 1,000 BDR soldiers of being responsible for the carnage.
   The 11-member home ministry committee will look into the background of the rebellion
and try to unearth the behind-the-scenes culprits, while the nine-member army team will conduct its own investigation.
   The government allowed the probe body commissioned by the home affairs ministry one more week to complete its task as its one week timeframe expired on Monday. Led by a retired bureaucrat, Anis-uz-Zaman, the committee on Sunday sought two more weeks to finish its investigation.
   The home affairs ministry in an official notification extended the timeframe for completing the inquiry by seven working days. The inquiry committee was reconstituted on March 2, after home affairs minister Sahara Khatun was replaced by retired secretary Anis-uz-zaman Khan for the sake of an independent inquiry.
   The reconstituted eleven-member body — comprising the law secretary, additional secretary of the home ministry, director-general of the BDR, representatives from the Cabinet Division, the armed forces, the Prime Minister’s Office and the police — was asked to report within a week.
   The CID investigators remanded in custody six more accused in the case, raising the total accused being grilled under remand to 14, including prime suspect Syed Towhidul Alam, a deputy assistant director of the BDR.
   Investigators said that the accused gave them important information,
   but it would not be wise at the moment to disclose it for the sake of investigation.
   ‘It is a big incident; many people are involved in the matter. We need to talk to a lot of people,’ said Kahhar Akond.
   He said more suspects were captured in connection with the rebellion. The total number of accused in the CID’s custody is now 54.
   Based on the video footages, still pictures and statements by the detainees, the investigators identified them and later brought them into custody.
   Meanwhile, one BDR soldier allegedly committed suicide inside the Pilkhana. His body was taken to hospital for autopsy.
   The investigation officer said he was not sure whether or not the soldier had committed suicide. The authorities recovered the body from a bathroom inside the BDR headquarters.

Source: New Age