Bangladesh Army Says It Foiled Bid to Oust Hasina Government
January 22, 2012, 8:34 PM ESTBy Arun Devnath and James Rupert
(Adds Pakistan court hearing in ninth paragraph.)
Jan. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Bangladesh’s army foiled an attempt by former and serving officers to oust Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed’s government, a military spokesman said.
“Instigated by some non-resident Bangladeshis, some serving and retired officers with extreme religious views have tried to create disorder in the army,” Brigadier General Muhammad Masud Razzaq said in a statement yesterday. The conspiracy was a bid “to topple the system of democratic governance through the army,” Razzaq said.
Bangladesh, which has has had three major army coups and two dozen smaller rebellions since its independence from Pakistan in 1971, is aiming to boost growth to 8 percent in the next two years. Heightened concern over military intervention adds to the risk of political instability in the region, with the army and elected leadership in Pakistan locked in a showdown over coup allegations.
Bangladesh’s history of military intervention makes it “vulnerable to these coup attempts,” said Ataur Rahman, a political science professor at Dhaka University.
Still, “a coup with an Islamic militant orientation would be a surprise,” Rahman said in a telephone interview from the capital. While researching the officer corps, Rahman said he had “not found that Islamic militant views or socialization are widespread.”
Hasina was elected in December 2008, ending two years of military-backed emergency rule, on a program of combating terrorism, cutting food prices and raising living standards. More than half of the country’s 166 million people live on less than $1.25 a day, according to the Asian Development Bank. Growth in the year ended June 30, was 6.7 percent.
2009 Mutiny
A border security force, the Bangladesh Rifles, mutinied in 2009 over guards’ pay and working conditions. The rebels killed 63 army officers before the military suppressed the revolt and arrested hundreds of force members over subsequent months.
“Political tensions have continued over the trials of the rebels,” Rahman said. The government tried 666 members of the border guards in a single proceeding in June, convicting all but nine in a process that the New York-based group Human Rights Watch said failed to meet international standards for a fair trial.
Pakistan’s Supreme Court yesterday postponed until Feb. 1 a contempt of court hearing against Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani that could result in his dismissal. Gilani is facing charges that he defied a court order to pursue corruption cases against President Asif Ali Zardari.
Monsoon Flooding
The Pakistan government also faces a Jan. 24 hearing by judges investigating an alleged request by Zardari’s administration in May for U.S. assistance against a possible military coup. The claim has triggered the biggest confrontation between Pakistan’s generals and elected leaders since army rule ended four years ago.
About a third of Bangladesh, the world’s seventh most populous nation, floods during the annual monsoon, hampering development. The government says it will try to spend $10 billion, or 11 percent of its gross domestic product, over a decade to increase power capacity and attract investment from abroad. The country’s labor costs are lower than India and China, drawing companies such as General Electric Co. and International Business Machines Corp.
“Political stability has helped the economy,” Mustafa K. Mujeri, director general of the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, a Dhaka-based policy research organization, said in a telephone interview. “News of the failed attempt in the army to destabilize the government is unlikely to have a big impact on the economy,” Mujeri said. “It’s an isolated incident.”
Hasina is the daughter of former President Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who was assassinated in 1975 during a military coup four years after he led a war of secession from Pakistan. Hasina and her chief rival Khaleda Zia of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party have dominated the country’s politics for more than a decade.
--With assistance from Mark Williams in New Delhi. Editors: Peter Hirschberg, Paul Tighe
To contact the reporters on this story: Arun Devnath in Dhaka at adevnath@bloomberg.net; James Rupert in New Delhi at jrupert3@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Peter Hirschberg at phirschberg@bloomberg.net; Arijit Ghosh at aghosh@bloomberg.net
