Even as fissures have appeared in the tenuous tie between the Bangladesh Army and the Students Against Discrimination, the military on Friday requisitioned an unknown number of armoured personnel carriers (APCs) and 100 troops from each brigade to assemble in Dhaka, Northeast News has learnt.
While well-placed sources in Bangladesh’s security establishment said that the Army will take a few more days to consolidate their grip over the country, they revealed that troops from the all-important Savar-based 9th Division began to move into Dhaka in a “graduated manner”.
The Bangladesh Army has 10 division-sized regional commands with no definite number on brigades.
The 9th Infantry Division is located at Savar, while another critical formation, the 19th Infantry Division, is stationed at Ghatail.
The Bangladesh Army’s pro-active “preparedness” comes in the wake of revelations by student leader and Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives Ministry advisor Asif Mahmud Shajib Bhuiyan who claimed in a video, recorded earlier but released on Friday, that Army chief General Waqer-uz-Zaman had reluctantly agreed to have Nobel Peace laureate Mohammad Yunus as the chief advisor of the interim authority.
Earlier, another influential student leader Hasnat Abdullah had threatened publicly to launch a movement against the Army establishment in the wake of a clandestine meeting with Gen Zaman on March 11 when he reportedly suggested that the Awami League could return to Bangladesh political fold and even contest elections whenever they are held.
While both Abdullah and Bhuiyan did not make clear why the students’ leaders waited over two weeks to make public their confabulations with Gen Zaman, the former threatened to launch a countrywide movement against the Army authorities for trying to pave the way for the return of deposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to Bangladesh.
Soon after Bhuiyan’s revelations and Abdullah’s post on his Facebook page, the chiefs of Bangladesh’s three armed forces went into a virtual huddle aimed at taking steps in the near future, in anticipation of yet another students’ upheaval.
It is still not clear whether the military will take strong steps, especially when Yunus is expected to leave for a three-day China visit beginning March 26.
It could also be that in the event of the law and order situation taking a turn for the worse, Yunus may call off his China visit, the details of which are still unclear and fuzzy.
Much of Bangladesh was taken by surprise as the details of the March 11 meeting between the students’ representatives and Gen Waqer were made public largely as an attempt to show the Army chief in “poor light” and make attempts to re-energise a flagging and faltering movement marked by allegations of mismanagement, incompetence and corruption.
On his part, Yunus, realising that his position had considerably weakened since he took over as head of the interim regime on August 8 2024, held out an olive branch to New Delhi, seeking a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on the margins of the BIMSTEC conference in Thailand between April 3 and 4.
This meeting may not materialise considering that there has been no political engagement between the two countries since the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government.
Besides, the Indian establishment was keen to see an early democratic-electoral process that would place a legitimate political party in power with which it can do business.
Irrespective of what awaits Yunus and the interim regime, what is certain is that Gen Zaman remains on solid ground.
Bangladeshi security analysts said he enjoys the full support of the top brass and the divisional commanders even as there are reports of some differences among a section of very senior officers.
