Bangladesh Polls Under Scrutiny as Turkey-Sourced Shotguns Allegedly Bought for Battalion Ansar
Highly sensitive responsibilities such as guarding polling centers and ballot boxes are planned to be placed solely under the control of Ansar and VDP members.
A frightening and well coordinated plan of election engineering has allegedly emerged with the Ansar and VDP Directorate at its center. According to the allegations a grand strategy is being implemented for the election scheduled on twelve February by keeping the armed forces the administration and the police engaged elsewhere while controlling the core election process through Ansar and VDP members.
Around five hundred and fifty thousand Ansar and VDP members are being deployed for field level election duties. It is alleged that after five August the newly appointed Director General of Ansar and VDP Abdul Motaleb Sazzad Mahmud recruited around three thousand three hundred general students who were active members of Shibir and Hizbut Tahrir into the Ansar force.
In addition nearly three thousand Battalion Ansar members were recruited in exchange for large sums of money. These newly recruited members are now being specifically assigned to election duties.
Highly sensitive responsibilities such as guarding polling centers and ballot boxes are planned to be placed solely under the control of Ansar and VDP members. On election day their activities and instructions will be directly monitored and controlled from headquarters through a software system called AVMIS which allows senior officials to issue direct commands to field level personnel.
At present there are about one hundred thousand general Ansar members and nearly seventy million trained VDP members. According to the allegations five hundred and fifty seven thousand Ansar and VDP members affiliated with Jamaat and extremist groups have been registered through the AVMIS system for election duty. These members are expected to play the central role in election engineering on election day.
It is further alleged that through this software senior officials can directly instruct Ansar members deployed at polling centers. This could allow intentional obstruction of voting disruption at sensitive centers and deliberate creation of complications related to ballot boxes through covert instructions. There are also allegations that directives have been issued to seal ballots in favor of Jamaat and to vote yes in the referendum using code names such as Breakfast and Move Fast.
Additionally all Ansar and VDP members and their family members have allegedly been made mandatory voters. Each member has reportedly been instructed to ensure at least five votes. Failure to comply is said to result in dismissal from service.
Another serious allegation involves arms procurement. It is claimed that through secret tenders the Director General of Ansar has already purchased thirty two thousand semi automatic shotguns including Haksan Escort Magnum twenty gauge weapons from two different companies in Turkey in two separate phases. These weapons are intended to be distributed among Battalion Ansar members assigned to election duties.
The main executor of this entire plan is alleged to be Major General Abdul Motaleb Sazzad Mahmud the Director General of Ansar who is a resident of Chattogram and was reportedly associated with Shibir during his student life and is currently linked with Jamaat.
It is further alleged that he has already appointed three Jamaat aligned army officers to the Ministry of Home Affairs on deputation outside formal orders to advance his election agenda. The allegations also claim direct support from Home Affairs Adviser Jahangir Alam and Home Secretary Nasimul Gani.
Disclaimer: Views expressed by writers in this section are their own and do not reflect Milli Chronicle’s point-of-view.
