2011 Bangladesh coup d'état attempt

The Bangladesh Army reported a failed coup d'état that took place in December 2011 by rogue military officers and expatriate attempting to destabilize the democratic process and overthrow the Awami League (AL) led Government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Military officials stated that the coup was instigated by hard-line Islamist military officers, while University of Dhaka political scientist Ataur Rahman and other analysts suggested it may have been caused by military unrest over a 2009 crackdown on the military. Intelligence sources quoted by The Christian Science Monitor reported that the coup was an attempt to introduce sharia law by Islamist military officers with ties to Hizbut Tahrir, an Islamist group that is outlawed in Bangladesh. The coup attempt had apparently been planned over several weeks or months with support of religious fanatics outside of Bangladesh. Military sources said that up to 16 hard-line Islamist officers were involved in the coup, with some of them being detained.

Bangladesh is no stranger to military meddling, having endured three coups and numerous army mutinies in its 40 years of independence, as well as long spells of military rule. The latest news does not turn the historical page back to a grimmer chapter. But it ought to raise concern. Just months after Sheikh Hasina came to power; a mutiny by border-security soldiers in an encampment in Dhaka led to 56 officers being killed. Some 800 Paramilitary personnel still face trial for their involvement in the uprising, and the crisis frayed ties between the civilian administration and elements of the military establishment. For many Bangladeshis, not least the current Prime Minister, memories of earlier putsches are all too fresh. In 1975, mutinying soldiers burst into the house of Hasina’s father — then Bangladesh’s first ever Prime Minister — Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and gunned him and other family members down in the thin dawn light.

Brig. Gen. Muhammad Masud Razzaq, Director of the Personnel Services Directorate described the conspiracy involving a dozen active duty and retired officers that he said was intended “to spread disaffection in the Bangladeshi Army.” The Brigadier said the plot was uncovered in December following the detention of mastermind Ghulam Azam, former Ameer of the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh. Azam, who opposed the independence of Bangladesh during and after the 1971 war, is alleged to have led the Razakar and Al-Badr formations that resisted the India-trained Mukti Bahini. A slew of arrests had taken place silently in Bangladesh through December, prompting Khaleda Zia the former Prime Minister to allege that army officers were becoming victims of “sudden disappearance”. First, the retired Lieutenant Colonel Yusuf was arrested after he allegedly tried to instigate a serving Major to join him in executing his "malicious plan" on December 13, 2011. After the Major passed on the matter through his chain of command, the retired officer was arrested under the Army Act, according to the statement of the Brigadier to the media. Soon, another officer, Major Ziaul Haq, is said to have confided in a fellow officer about the plot but this officer, too, alerted the authorities. The army immediately cancelled Ziaul’s leave, stopped his transfer and remanded him in custody on December 23. Similarly, Zakir was arrested on December 31, 2011, accused of meeting a serving officer to instigate him to actions against the state. However, Ziaul somehow managed to escape and is now in hiding. On December 28, a military court of inquiry was established to investigate the matter and punish those involved. Retired Major General Sayed Mohammad Ibrahim, a defense analyst, said the country and its democratic structures were reasonably immune to interference. “Today’s news about events in the army is worrying but will not cause any damage to democracy,” he said. The military spokesperson also said the initial investigations found non-resident Bangladeshis (NRB) link to the plot while at least one of the officers, the fugitive Major, was linked to banned Islamist group Hizbut Tahrir. He mentioned, “Stringent legal measures will be taken against the persons involved in the conspiracy after proper investigation.” The army spokesman underlined that banking on the army in the past, “different evil forces availed political gains and made abortive attempts to do so but as an institution, military still has to bear the stigma”.

The alleged conspiracy against the government comes more than a year after five military officers were sentenced to five years of imprisonment in a court-martial for their “involvement” in attempted murder of Fazle Noor Taposh, the influential nephew of Hasina, after the bloody 2009 mutiny by the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) frontier force.