US embassy cable - 05DHAKA425

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 DHAKA 000425 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/31/2015 
TAGS: PGOV, PREL, BG 
SUBJECT: BANGLADESH STRIKE WINDS DOWN 
 
REF: A. DHAKA 0360 
 
     B. DHAKA 0361 
 
Classified By: P/E Counselor D.C. McCullough, Reason(s): 1.5 (b),(d) 
 
1. (C) Summary: The 60-hour strike called to protest the 
January 27 grenade attack that killed former Awami League 
finance minister Kibria is winding down amid reports of 
scattered violence and injuries.  AL MP's are boycotting 
tonight's delivery of President Ahmed's annual address to 
Parliament.  The AL meets later today with its allies to 
consider new strikes that might spill into the SAARC summit, 
which the BDG affirms will open on schedule February 6. 
Local press highlighted the suspicious transfer of two police 
officers involved with the attack investigation.  End Summary. 
 
Three Days of Sporadic Clashes 
------------------------------ 
 
2.  (SBU) On January 27, an explosion in Habiganj, 250 
kilometers northeast of Dhaka, killed five Awami League (AL) 
members and wounded at least 70 others.  Killed were MP and 
former Finance Minister Shah A.M.S. Kibria, his nephew Shah 
Manjurul Huda, and AL activists Saddique Ali, Abdur Rahim, 
and Abul Hossain (ref a).  The AL quickly declared a 60-hour 
country-wide strike (hartal) that ends at 1800 local January 
31. 
 
3.  (SBU) As the strike heads into its final hour, sporadic 
clashes centered in Dhaka have left one person dead and at 
least a 150 injured. There have been disruptions in 
inter-city bus, rail and air traffic, and many shops, 
schools, and businesses were closed in the major cities.  In 
Dhaka, seven vehicles were set on fire, and police used tear 
gas and batons to stop a procession of AL MP's, reportedly 
injuring two MP's and two press photographers in the process. 
 In Dhaka and Chittagong, police confined AL activists to 
party offices in some areas and other locations to prevent 
them from demonstrating.  Police arrested 15 AL leaders in 
Chittagong, but arrests in general appear to have been few. 
 
4. (SBU) AL MP's are scheduled to march on Parliament at 1500 
local. 
 
5. (SBU) At approximately 1530 local, an explosion occurred 
in the vicinity of the residence of S.Q. Chowdhury, the PMO's 
Parliamentary Affairs Adviser and an arch-villain for many AL 
activists.  There are no reported injuries. 
 
AL: The BNP/Jamaat Alliance Did It 
---------------------------------- 
 
6. (SBU) AL president Sheikh Hasina, other party leaders, and 
Kibria's widow and son quickly blamed the grenade attack on 
the BDG.  "Shah AMS Kibria was killed as part of the 
BNP/Jamaat-led government's cleansing operation against Awami 
League to hang on to power.  The government high-ups 
instructed kill Kibria," Hasina declared at her January 28 
press conference.  On January 29, AL SYG Abdul Jalil 
broadened the charge to include PM Zia and her son Tariq 
Rahman.  "Kibria's killing is not an isolated incident," he 
noted.  "but a sequel to the killings of Ivy Rahman (at the 
August 21 attack) and Ahsanullah Master" (the AL MP 
assassinated in Dhaka on May 7). 
 
7. (C) Saber Hossain Chowdhury, Hasina's political secretary, 
told us the Kibria hartal has been a "big improvement" in 
terms of organization and popular response.  Demonstrators, 
he said, are on side streets as well as thoroughfares. 
Chowdhury predicted a two-day break for remembrance services 
February 1 and 2 before resuming with a one-day hartal on 
February 3. 
 
8. (SBU) AL leaders support a two or three day hartal from 
February 5 that would spill into the formal start of the 
SAARC summit on February 6.  Pre-summit meetings with lower 
officials begin February 1.  The AL's leftist partners, 
traditionally resistant to hartals because of their 
unpopularity, are reportedly divided.  A joint meeting of the 
loose opposition partnership is expected to make a decision 
later today. 
 
BNP: AL is Exploiting Kibria's Death for Political Gain 
--------------------------------------------- ---------- 
 
9. (SBU) Mannan Bhuyian, Local Government Minister and BNP 
SYG, alleged January 30 that the AL is bent on creating a 
political crisis through false and irresponsible charges of 
BDG complicity in Kibria's killing.  He urged the AL to 
desist from strikes and cooperate with the bombing 
investigation.  Regarding prior attacks, he said on January 
28: "We could not arrest the culprits involved in bomb and 
grenade attacks.  It may be due to our weakness or the 
administration."  Citing this statement, some AL leaders have 
called for the BDG's resignation. 
 
Mrs. Kibria: Prompt Medical Care Might Have Saved Him 
--------------------------------------------- -------- 
 
10. (SBU) During the Ambassador's January 29 condolence call 
on the Kibria family, Mrs. Kibria denied BNP SYG Bhuyian's 
claim that the BDG had offered a helicopter to evacuate her 
husband after the attack.  When Kibria eventually arrived at 
the Dhaka Combined Military Hospital, where as a former 
minister he had a right to service, there was an additional 
delay while staff attempted to locate doctors.  In her view, 
prompt medical care might have saved his life. 
 
Other Developments 
------------------ 
 
11. (SBU) Parliament Boycott: To protest the speaker's 
refusal to postpone for one day President Ahmed's annual 
address to Parliament, AL MP's are boycotting tonight's 
session.  According to the AL, parliamentary tradition 
requires adjourning after an obituary message is read for a 
sitting member. 
 
12. (C) Investigator Removed: The police officer 
investigating the January 27 attack and his supervisor have 
been suspended, according to press reports.  Some press 
reports speculated the suspensions aim to obstruct an 
effective investigation.  A Dhaka police contact upset with 
the suspension told us the investigator had made a good start 
interviewing witnesses, but Home Minister of State Babar 
personally ordered his replacement with a Dhaka-based 
officer.  "The Home Minister does not want the truth 
known...and this is the same thing that happened after the 
August 21 attack." 
 
13. (C) Another Arges Grenade: On January 29, DGFI DG Major 
General Rumy confirmed to DATT press reports that the grenade 
on January 27 was an "Arges," the same type used in the 
August 21 attack.  Contrary to Kibria family claims, he said, 
there was a BDG helicopter available in addition to 2 private 
helicopters for charter which the Kibrias opted not to use. 
According to Rumy, the 73-year-old Kibria was sick the day of 
the attack but was pressured by AL leadership to attend the 
rally for sake of his nephew, who was conducting the event. 
 
14. (SBU) EU/UK Response: Local EU missions have been 
prominent in registering their condemnation and concerns 
about the attack.  UK Foreign Office Minister of State for 
South Asia Douglas Alexander wrote Foreign Minister Khan 
after he was unable to reach him by phone.  He wrote: "Your 
government must now give a clear signal that acts of 
political terrorism are not acceptable nor government 
sponsored.  This will be important to the people of 
Bangladesh, and the global community who are deeply concerned 
by the terrorist attacks in Bangladesh over the last year." 
 
15. (SBU) Request for FBI, Foreign Help:  The BDG has asked 
for help from FBI, Interpol, and Scotland Yard in the January 
27 attack.  After the August 21 attack, the BDG also 
requested foreign help, which it then constrained but 
subsequently cited as proof of the attack's complexity and 
hence a reason for the failure to solve the case.  Mindful of 
that experience, the British High Commission and we stated 
that are taking the new request under advisement.  Local 
papers prominently reported Embassy press guidance on the FBI 
request: 
 
For FBI assistance to be useful, we believe it would be 
important for the government to establish clear terms of 
reference and to make other provisions to ensure that FBI 
consultants are given full access to all relevant evidence 
and witnesses.  If such terms of reference had been 
established prior to the involvement of foreign consultants 
in the August 21 attack, their contribution to the 
investigation might have been more meaningful.  In both 
cases, the August 21 and January 27 attacks, the potential 
utility of the FBI assistance was greatly undermined when the 
crime scene was not properly protected from contamination. 
 
Comment 
------- 
16. (C) With three fatal attacks on senior AL leaders in 
eight months. it is getting increasingly hard to counter 
Hasina's insistence that someone (in her view, the BDG) is 
out to destroy her party.  There is a discouragingly familiar 
pattern after such attacks with each side's allegations and 
counter-allegations, even including delayed medical treatment 
for the wounded at Dhaka's most serviceable hospital.  Four 
days after January 27, no BDG official, to our knowledge, has 
publicly blamed the AL for the attack, though Communications 
Minister Huda made this charge at a January 29 diplomatic 
reception.  Several BDG officials, however, including Law 
Minister Ahmed, have attributed the attack to people who seek 
to portray Bangladesh as a failed state teetering on Islamist 
revolution--a possible reference to India or the AL.  After 
August 21, it was PM Zia herself who later insinuated that 
the AL was responsible for the attack. 
 
17. (C) The BDG's approach to these incidents has been to 
tough out the initial adverse reaction from home and abroad 
as it follows a two-track strategy of promising "to leave no 
stone unturned" in the investigation, which it has done now 
with Ambassador and others, and making sure that the police, 
or any foreign consultants, don't solve the case.  One wild 
card in the current mix is the upcoming SAARC summit, which 
could embolden the AL to press its agenda more aggressively 
and correspondingly make the BDG more sensitive to any acts 
of "lawlessness." 
THOMAS