Bangladesh Army denounces activist questioning military chief's integrity

The Bangladesh Army on Saturday sharply reacted to the comment made by a pro-opposition rights activist questioning the military chief's integrity and called it a deliberate attempt to belittle the force's top position and bring down the morale of its personnel.

Dr Jafarulah Chowdhury,75, during a talk show of Somoy TV on October 9 stated that a huge quantum of military weapons and ammunition "went missing, were stolen or sold out" from the army's arsenal in north-eastern Chattogram area when the incumbent army chief General Aziz Ahmed was the commander.

However, hours after the Army's reaction against the comments by Chowdhury, he sought an apology for his unintentional mistake through the wrong choice of words.

Chowdhury, who is also a doctor and the founder of non-government Ganashasthya Kendra hospital and medical college, said that the incident exposed Aziz to a court-martial.

Chowdhury is currently spearheading a media campaign accusing the incumbent government of misrule and politicising the administration ahead of the elections slated for December this year.

The army called Chowdhury's comment completely untrue, misleading and motivated and aimed to belittle a state organisation like the Army before the people, apart from affecting Ahmed's personal reputation, social status and his official 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 an army which is unexpected," said the Army in a statement.

"It was an untrue and irresponsible comment . . . because General Aziz in his service life never served as the GOC or commandant of Chattogram," the statement said.

It also mentioned that Ahmed never faced any court-martial in his career.

"It is especially mentionable that present Chief of Army Staff Aziz Ahmed did never face any court-martial during his long colourful army career," the statement said.

Hours after the statement issued by the Army, Chowdhury sought an apology for his unintentional mistake through the choice of wrong words.

"During the discussion, I gave wrong information about the country's incumbent Army chief General Aziz by mistake (and) in the past two days I expressed my regret to the Army chief pointing out my wrong choice of words," Chowdhury said during a press conference at his Ganashasthya Kendra office.

He said that he did not intend to dishonour the Army or its chief General Aziz.

"I called today's press conference to finally end the misunderstanding. . . I had no intention to dishonour the Army or General Aziz (and) again I sincerely regret, if I had inadvertently hurt General Aziz," he said.