August 2015: from editor’s desk

Written by Abu Rushd

Bangladesh Army is now a highly trained and well groomed fighting machine. Within last couple of years lot many armaments and equipment were inducted including long desired Main Battle Tanks, two more infantry divisions were raised and abundant of development works were taken care off... ...

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​Apart from these achievements, consecutively two army chiefs were appointed from the same course who shaped and run the whole organization with high standard, maintained military tradition and above all set up professionalism among all personnel. General Mubeen and Gen Ikbal Karim hailed from the same course, both from Infantry commanded the army for long six years. This is the second incident when officers from the same course could rise to the coveted post of the chief of staff; the other two were Maj Gen Shafiullah and Lt Gen Ziaur Rahman. Gen Mubeen took over command in such a time when dozens of military officers were killed by the mutineers at the then BDR HQ out of which morale of the whole army was down. The General not only ensured high standard of discipline but also worked hard to bring back the core issue of a soldier- the morale. When he left, Bangladesh Army was back on feet, regained its dignity and honor. Then came Gen Ikbal Karim. He continued with the tasks left by his course mate. During his tenure he worked with thunderous speed and zeal- when development works were taken to the peak, two more infantry divisions were raised and total reorganization took place. Col M.R. Choudhury who happened to be the course mate of both the chiefs of staff has analyzed in detail about their tenures. His write up titled ‘Bangladesh Army: The End Of An Era’ is our cover story for this month.

​On the other hand, Bangladesh Air Force under its ongoing modernization process has already acquired 09 nos light combat jet trainer K-8s from China. BAF is also going to get its YAK-130s from Russia soon. It’s a commendable achievement of BAF and we hope they will continue to pursue their modernization process.

​We have published the second instalment of ‘India- Pakistan: Arms Race Heats Up’ which will give you some ideas about the latest development taking shapes in this subcontinent. Capt Mortada has written an interesting article on General Osmany - the commander in chief of liberation forces.

​Other regular sections are there as usual. We hope our readers will accept this issue with warmth.

​May Allah bless Bangladesh.