No new commission to be formed to investigate Peelkhana massacre: Home Minister

Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed has declared that the present government will not form any new commission to investigate the Peelkhana massacre. 

Instead, the recommendations made by the commission established during the interim government will be implemented gradually and step by step, he also said.

Home Minister laid a wreath at the military cemetery in Banani on Wednesday morning to mark National Martyrs' Day. 

He made the statements afterward while speaking to journalists. 

Salahuddin Ahmed explained that an independent national investigation commission had been formed during the interim government and that its report is now available to the current administration. 

He noted that no implementation steps had yet been taken on the basis of that report.

The Home Minister corrected an earlier remark he had made without reviewing the full document, stating, “I said some things a few days ago without seeing this report in full, which I want to correct today. We will not form any new investigation commission. Since a national independent investigation commission was formed by skilled and competent people, the recommendations that I have seen in their report number about seventy.”

He added that cases currently under trial, including those at the appeal stage or in the Appellate Division, would be allowed to complete the full judicial process. 

The remaining recommendations from the interim government’s commission would then be carried out step by step, he also said.

Referring to the incident itself, the Home Minister said the Peelkhana massacre had been a direct threat to the independence and sovereignty of Bangladesh and was intended to weaken the Bangladesh Army. 

He observed that those responsible might be individuals who do not believe in the independence and sovereignty of the country or who wish to see Bangladesh as a weakened state.

The Home Minister also recalled that the government in power at the time of the massacre had formed a committee to uncover the motives behind the brutal killings, but that committee’s investigation report was never made public.