There has been a continuous cry for international level enquiry involving assistance already offered by Great Britain, the European Union, USA, and India. As much as I would like to see the culprits brought to justice, I do have reservations about involving other nations in the process of the inquiry.

Bangladesh is about the only secular country amongst the third world countries in this region with nearly 90 percent of its population being Muslims. Contrary to popular belief, in recent times the strategic importance of the country has increased particularly in the backdrop of Bush/Blair's global war on terrorism.

The problem of involving these countries to participate in the enquiry is that, in all probability, the outcome is most likely to influence the final conclusions aimed at serving their common interests rather than provide a "solution" for us. As a matter of fact, it may even jeopardise our greater national interests.

What could be the basis of such reasoning? One only has to analyse the most immediate concerns of USA and Great Britain with regard to its ongoing global war on terrorism. Amongst the Muslim countries, except for Pakistan, no other Muslim nation in real terms could be described as a full-time partner of USA/Great Britain in their war

against terrorism. Pakistan so far has not agreed to send troops to Iraq. The Bush/Blair axis has almost run aground in its efforts to mobilise additional troops for Iraq. It is thus looking for ways and means whereby countries like Bangladesh could be coerced into sending troops to Iraq, a country the majority of whose population happens to be Muslims.

The simple way to do this would be to take the lead from the findings of the "inquiry" and then include the name of Bangladesh in its list of terrorist countries. The axis also needs to show that even Muslim nations stand shoulder to shoulder in its "noble cause." One also has to realise that USA is the only superpower capable of manipulating and intimidating any country it so wishes in order to meet its selfish interests. History bears testimony to that fact. It

is therefore imperative that we carefully assess the situation with regard to foreign involvement in the inquiry into the bombings. It may be true that by involving USA in this way, we may have some immediate "gains" but in longer terms it may turn out to be counterproductive and put the country's sovereignty in jeopardy.

Having said all this, it is now up to us to find ways and means to effectively go about the inquiry/investigation and bring the culprits to book. Before the process of inquiry begins, both the ruling party and the opposition must agree upon its modalities. The entire political hierarchy on both sides of the fence must view the situation from the premise that the magnitude of the bombings go beyond partisan interests without least undermining the gravity of the attack on the life of no

less a person than the leader of the opposition. One way of doing that would be to constitute a high profile committee of a maximum of seven, which will include at least two each from both the ruling party and the opposition, and the remainder three chosen from amongst the most reputed members of the civil society, individuals of a very high caliber and having a track record of unquestionable integrity. The specific job of this committee would be restricted to framing of the terms of reference only.

Then there should be an investigating committee to conduct the actual work at the ground level. The committee should be constituted taking the best personnel from all major intelligence agencies of the country to be headed by an ex-Inspector General of Police or a retired Judge of the Supreme Court,

entrusted with the dual task of overseeing intelligence collection, framing of charges, and submitting the final report for final implementation. It is important to note that both the committee on preparation of terms of reference and the intelligence committee must work within given time frames.

To most of us, the suggested plans, given the prevailing political culture, may appear to be overambitious and unrealistic. It is up to the two major political parties to make the right moves. I am certain they will have nothing but unqualified support from the entire nation. I have just returned from Pakistan after a five-week visit. Even in that environment of a "dictatorial- cum-police state" a process of dialogue between the main opposition and the ruling party do prevail, no matter how limited in scope. In this context I must point out that the recent refusal of the leader of the opposition to meet the prime minister was indeed short-sighted and certainly do not speak of any real political wisdom.

Shamsher Chowdhury is a freelance writer