Bangladesh army on Monday has snubbed Ganashasthya Kendra Trustee Dr Zafarulah Chowdhury’s statement made in a recent media briefing that he called to clarify his earlier remarks in a TV talk show about their chief General Aziz Ahmed.
The army has described his statements as “false, misleading and completely motivated”, BSS reported on Monday (Oct 15).
“Dr Zafarulah 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 Oct 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 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 Oct 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 current 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.
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