By IANS
Dhaka : Bangladesh Thursday re-commissioned a frigate it purchased from South Korea for US$83 million, but removed from its fleet five years ago after a government-change and charges of corruption.
Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed re-commissioned the frigate, earlier named “Bangabandhu”, under a new name, BNS Khalid Bin Walid, at a naval jetty in Chittagong, news website Star Online said.
The state of the art frigate remained idle for more than five years because of sheer ‘political meanness’ of the immediate past BNP-led alliance government, newspaper Daily Star had earlier said in a report on June 3.
It was commissioned in June 2001 by the government led by Sheikh Hasina, but eight months later, the regime of Begum Khaleda Zia de-commissioned it after charges were levelled that the vessel and been overpriced and that it had substandard equipment on board.
A high-powered investigation headed by former commodore Hasan Ali Khan was formed. The other members of the committee were Commodore Kalimullah, Captain PK Barua and Captain Naser. The committee was assigned to detect substandard equipment installed in the frigate, but it failed to substantiate the allegation, the newspaper said.
A nephew of Zia, Saiful Islam Duke, who quit the Navy to become her personal secretary, was behind the de-commissioning move. Duke was involved in many defence purchases between 2002-06, it said.
The present government, while putting the ship back in operation, is also pursuing the corruption case filed by the Zia Government against Hasina and Daewoo Shipyard, the Korean shipbuilder.
This case and the purchase of MiG-29s for Bangladesh Air Force have been mired in controversy and Hasina says their revival is meant to ‘target’ her.
“If there was corruption, let there be legal action against that. But what is the justification of decommissioning a world-class frigate of the navy?” the newspaper quoted an unnamed “high defence official” as asking.
The then Bureau of Anti-corruption filed a case in 2003 in connection with the purchase of the frigate from the fourth lowest bidder, causing a loss to the government.
The case virtually died after Hasina, Daewoo’s local representative Abdul Awal Mintoo, and four defence officers had been granted bail in August 2003.