October 4, 2004 ☼ Foreign Affairs
This is an archived blog post from The Acorn.
The one-member judicial commission that investigated the vicious bombing of an opposition rally in Dhaka in August has obliquely referred to the involvement of a foreign country in the attacks. Unfortunately, the commission does not name them because of ‘diplomatic reasons’. Moreover, it does not name the local abettors because it is ‘impossible to identify’ them.
As judicial commissions go, it is impossible to fathom what exactly this one revealed that was not already the subject of gossip in Dhaka’s bazaars.
The commission has failed to do its job (which was to identify the terrorists) and instead decided to take on the unassigned task of managing diplomatic relations. If at all ‘diplomatic reasons’ demanded the identify of the foreign power be kept secret, that was a decision for the government to make.
Under the deeply divided political atmosphere in Bangladesh, a report that insinuates much but tells nothing does a deep disservice to the Bangladeshi nation. If Bangladesh suspects foreign involvement, it must have the conviction to publicly point fingers and back its allegations up with facts and evidence. It is unfortunate that a body charged with digging out the truth has ended up fueling the very conspiracy stories that it was asked to destroy.
Update: An analysis of the commission’s report
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