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[🇧🇩] BDR Mutiny---An Irreparable Damage to Bangladesh's First Line of Defense

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[🇧🇩] BDR Mutiny---An Irreparable Damage to Bangladesh's First Line of Defense
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15 YEARS OF BDR MUTINY​

No end to wait for justice​

Judge shortage holds back hearing of appeals against conviction, 283 in jail after acquittal of murder charges​

Muktadir Rashid and M Moneruzzaman | Published: 00:34, Feb 25,2024


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Families of the victims as well as the accused soldiers still cry for justice as appeals against convictions in the murder case for the February 25–26, 2009 mutiny in the border force are still pending with the Appellate Division, while a case under the explosives act is pending with the trial court.

Justice into the killings of 75 people, mostly army officers deputed in the erstwhile Bangladesh Rifles, has not been delivered even after 15 years of the mutiny in the border force, while many former soldiers and civilians have been languishing in jail for years and dozens have died pending trials.

Those who were acquitted by a trial court in November 2013 of the murder charge have been in jail as another case related to explosive substances is still pending with the trial court.

The families of the accused and convicts said at least 48 people have died in jail custody since the trial started, while the plot and plotters are yet to be identified.
‘Many questions about the incident are yet to be answered,’ said retired Lieutenant Colonel Mustafizur Rahman, who investigated the incident during his posting in army intelligence and later left the job and the country.

He said that their investigation could not identify many perpetrators.

Family members of the accused and convicts said that they were devastated by the event and its aftermath, and they wanted immediate disposal of the trials pending both in the Supreme Court and trial court.

The shortage of Appellate Division judges caused the delay in holding hearings on 71 appeals filed by the government and the convicts, according to attorney general AM Amin Uddin.

‘A special bench with at least four judges will be needed to hear and dispose of the large volume of appeals,’ Amin told reporters at his office on Thursday.

On February 25, 2009, several hundred BDR soldiers took arms against their officers deputed from the army at Durbar Hall during their annual gathering at the paramilitary headquarters in Dhaka, leaving 75 people—57 army officers, two wives of army officers, nine BDR soldiers, five civilians, an army soldier, and a police constable—killed.
Border guard special courts sentenced 5,926 soldiers to varying terms on mutiny charges in 57 cases, including 11 in Dhaka, while two criminal cases—one filed for the murders and the other filed under the Explosive Substances Act—are still pending with the court.

A case filed under the Explosive Substances Act against 833 BDR personnel and a civilian is pending with the Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Judge Court, and 273 of the 1,344 prosecution witnesses have so far been examined, said deputy chief prosecutor Sheikh Baharul Islam.

Only 18 prosecution witnesses were examined between February 2023 and February 2024, according to a court document.

The appeals filed by death-row convicts against their sentences and another by the government against the acquittal of some soldiers by the High Court in the murder case await an Appellate Division hearing.

Attorney general Amin said that the special bench required for the pending hearings could not be constituted unless new judges were appointed to the Appellate Division.
Two major cases were investigated jointly by the Criminal Investigation Department, and the trial started in 2011 against 850 riflemen and civilians.

Amid the simultaneous trial, the trial court continued the trial of the case filed for murder and other offences, slowing down proceedings in the explosives case.

On November 5, 2013, additional sessions judge Akhtaruzzaman, who was later elevated to the High Court as judge, pronounced the verdict in the murder case, sentencing 151 soldiers and civilian Zakir Hossain to death.

The court also jailed 160 soldiers, including late Bangladesh Nationalist Party leader Nasiruddin Pintu, local Awami League leader and retired BDR subedar Md Torab Ali, for life terms, and 256 others for varying terms.

It acquitted 278 people. Four others died before the verdict.

In November 2017, the special High Court bench of Justice Md Shawkat Hossain, Justice Md Abu Zafor Siddique, and Justice Md Nazrul Islam Talukder upheld the death sentences of 139 soldiers. It commuted the death sentences of seven soldiers and Md Zakir Hossain, then a local Awami League leader, to life in jail.

The court acquitted four soldiers of the charges, and BDR deputy assistant director Habibur Rahman died in jail custody in February 2014 while his appeal against the death sentence was pending with the High Court.

The High Court upheld the life terms of 146 BDR personnel and acquitted 12 others of their life terms. Two others died during the pendency of their appeals.

Defence lawyers and family members said that a total of 283 acquitted people and 190 others, who completed their short jail terms in other cases, were still languishing in jail due to the delayed trial of the explosives case.

‘My brother sepoy Darul Islam was in Peelkhana during the mutiny. He was arrested later. He was jailed for seven years on the charge of murder but acquitted of the charges of murder, arson, and other heinous crimes. It’s been 10 years, he was not released,’ Sabuj Miah told New Age over phone.

He said that they had been trying to draw the attention of the government and judiciary to how the former troopers were facing injustice.

The attorney general said that the government filed 20 appeals in December 2020.

Death-row convicts filed 35 appeals in January and February 2021 against their sentences, a court official said. The attorney general said all appeals would be heard together.

Both the government inquiry committee, headed by former secretary Anis-uz-Zaman Khan, and an investigation conducted by the army failed to identify the plot and the plotters.

The report by Anis-uz-Zaman recommended an investigation into the failure to gather intelligence about the planned mutiny. The army did not make the results of its investigation public.

New York-based rights group Human Rights Watch said that it had obtained the report and stated that the report faulted the government for not having taken a stronger line against BDR before the rebellion.

The successive Awami League government has so far initiated no further investigation recommended by the two probe bodies, while the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party has been saying that they will identify the perpetrators if voted to power.

HRW also urged the government to establish an independent investigative and prosecutorial task force with sufficient expertise, authority, and resources to rigorously investigate and, where appropriate, prosecute all allegations of unlawful deaths, torture, and mistreatment of suspects in the BDR mutiny, regardless of the perpetrator’s rank or institutional affiliation.

Families of slain officers and convicted soldiers said that the nation should know the reason for the rebellion, as well as the plot and plotters because neither an investigation nor a trial revealed them.

Slain Colonel Quadrat Elahi Rahman Shafique’s son, Saquib Rahman, repeatedly said that the pawns were tried but the plotters were not identified.

As of February 24, a total of 761 BDR jawans have been detained in Dhaka Central Jail, Kashimpur High Central Jail-1, Kashimpur Central Jail-2, and Kashimpur High Security Central Jail, according to the directorate of the prisons.

Senior military and civilian officials will pay tribute to the graves of killed soldiers at their military graveyard in the capital’s Banani today.​
 

BDR mutiny: ‘It was done to destroy army’s morale’​

Says Fakhrul; probe, trial centring incident not transparent, says GM Quader

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Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir. File photo

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir yesterday said the BDR mutiny was part of a long-term conspiracy that aimed to destroy the morale of the country's army.

On the same day, Jatiya Party Chairperson GM Quader said the trial and investigation process of Pilkhana carnage was not transparent; most families of the martyrs believe this as well.

The BNP and JP leaders made the remarks at the capital's Banani army graveyard, after placing floral wreaths at the grave of army officers who died during the BDR carnage.

The nation yesterday mourned the death of 74 people, including 57 army officers, in the incident that occurred on February 25-26 in 2009.

Talking to the media, Fakhrul said the BDR mutiny was a serious conspiracy that was against the country.

Claiming that around 7,000 jawans of then BDR (now Border Guard Bangladesh) are innocent, Fakhrul said, hearing of their cases is yet to be completed.

"They have been spending their lives in inhumane prison conditions for 13 to 14 years. Their families and future are being destroyed," he added.

"Today, I will demand to resolve all judicial issues against them. They should be released."

Asked about an Awami League leader mentioning that Khaleda Zia's movement on the day of the carnage was "suspicious", Fakhrul said such a statement is nothing but irresponsible.

Meanwhile, GM Quader said due to non-transparency in the investigation process, the martyrs' families are angry. "The government needs to pay attention to the trial of the brutal killings so that the families can be relieved."

"What action has been taken against those who were responsible for such horrific murders? The nation wants to know," he added.

After placing wreaths, the victims' families expressed disappointment that the verdict of the BDR carnage case is yet to be executed.

The mutiny in 2009 shocked the nation. A total of 829 people, mostly BDR members, were accused in the carnage case filed later.

On November 5, 2013, a Dhaka court sentenced 148 BDR members and two civilians to death, 160 to life in prison, and 256 people, mostly BDR soldiers, to rigorous imprisonment.

The court acquitted 278, but the prosecutors later appealed against the acquittal of 69.​
 

Carnage At Pilkhana BDR HQ: 15 years on, justice yet to be meted out​


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Fifteen years have passed since the BDR mutiny that killed 74 people, including 57 army officials, but the victim families are yet to get final justice and the accused their due punishment, as both the cases filed over the incident have not yet been disposed of due to lengthy legal processes and courts being overburdened with cases.

The mutiny at the Pilkhana headquarters of the erstwhile Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) on February 25-26, 2009, left the nation shocked, as people stood aghast at the extent of the barbarity perpetrated at the headquarters of the paramilitary force, later renamed Border Guard Bangladesh.​

On November 5, 2013, a Dhaka court handed down death sentences to 150 BDR members and two civilians, and life imprisonment to 160 others for their role and involvement in the carnage. A total of 256 people, mostly BDR soldiers, were handed jail sentences.

The court acquitted 278 others, but the prosecution later appealed against the acquittal of 69.

In January 2015, the HC started hearing the appeals of the convicts and pronounced its verdict on November 27, 2017, confirming the death penalty of 139.

It commuted the death penalty of eight convicts to life imprisonment and acquitted five others, who were sentenced to death by the trial court.

The HC upheld life imprisonment of 146 and acquitted 14 of the 160 accused, who were sentenced to life by the lower court.

A total of 248 accused out of the 278 got acquittals from the HC.

The execution of the death row convicts now depends on the hearing of appeals by the Appellate Division and its verdict.
Contacted, Law Minister Anisul Huq told The Daily Star on February 14 that the appeals, which have been filed against the HC verdict in the BDR carnage case, will be heard and disposed of by the Appellate Division when they serially come up in the hearing list.

Those, who have filed the appeals, may take the initiative for early hearings before the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, he said, adding, "The state has nothing to do in this regard."

About the case filed under the Explosive Substances Act in connection with the same incident, the minister said the trial proceedings are going on at the lower court and will be finished when the relevant procedures are done.

Meanwhile, Aminul Islam, one of the defence lawyers in the BDR carnage case, told this newspaper that it depends on the chief justice when the Appellate Division will start hearing the appeals.

He added that the deposition of the witnesses under the Explosive Substances Act has been going on before the magistrate court concerned.

A total of 68 appeals and leave-to-appeal petitions have been filed on behalf of the convicted accused.

Of them, 35 appeals were filed by 63 condemned convicts. The rest were filed on behalf of 162 convicts who were sentenced to life, he said, adding that the state also filed 20 appeals against the acquittals of 83 by the HC.

Aminul further said that around 500 accused, who have already served jail sentences and got acquitted by the trial court and HC, could not walk out of jail as they are also accused in the Explosives Substances Act case.

Over a year will be needed to finish the trial of the case filed under the Explosive Substances Act, he said, adding that family members of the arrested have been suffering and leading very miserable lives.

A total of 256 convicts in the carnage case are behind bars beyond their jail terms as the trial of the second case filed under the Explosive Substances Act is yet to be completed.

Public Prosecutor Mosharraf Hossain Kajol said the trial court has so far recorded depositions of 271 of a total of 644 witnesses in the second case, the trial of which was delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The PP hoped it would be completed this year.​
 

Fakhrul questions investigation into 2009 BDR mutiny​

Fakhrul questions investigation into 2009 BDR mutiny


BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Saturday alleged that there was no proper investigation into the killings of 57 army officers in the BDR mutiny in 2009.

"We think the way this incident should have been investigated and the way the investigation process should have been conducted to bring out the real offenders and the masterminds through a fair investigation, that didn't happen unfortunately," he said.

Fakhrul came up with the remarks while talking to reporters after placing wreaths at a monument set up at Banani Army Graveyard in memory of the army officials killed in the Pilkhana carnage, marking the 14th anniversary of the incident.

He said the Army had conducted an investigation into the BDR mutiny incident, but the nation has not yet got the full report of that probe.

The BNP leader said some people were awarded death sentences and life imprisonment in a case filed in connection with the mutiny and subsequent killings.

But he lamented that the trial of another case filed under the Explosive Substances Act in connection with the same incident has not yet been completed, forcing many soldiers of the erstwhile Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) who claim themselves innocent still stay in jail.

"I was in prison a few days ago. I saw there that many ex-BDR members who were made accused in this case have been living inhumanly for 13/14 years. Their families and future are ruined," Fakhrul said.

He demanded the government take steps to complete the trial in the explosive case so that those who are innocent can return to normal life with their families.

On 25-26 February 2009, a mutiny in the then Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) left 74 people, including 57 army officers, murdered at the Pilkhana Headquarters.

On 5 November 2013, a Dhaka court awarded death sentences to 150 BDR members and two civilians, and life imprisonment to 160 others in the case. On 27 November 2017, the High Court confirmed the death penalty for 139 out of 152 accused.

Following the heinous killings of the army officers at the Pilkhana headquarters, the government renamed the mutiny-hit paramilitary force BDR as Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), changing its logo as well as uniform.

Fakhrul along with some ex-army officials went to the graveyard and placed wreaths at the monument and offered special prayers there seeking eternal peace of the departed souls of the slain army officers.

The BNP leader expressed deep homage to the slain army officers whom he described as the assets of the nation in protecting independence and sovereignty.

He also talked to Rakin Ahmed Bhuiya, son of then BDR Director General Maj Gen Shakil Ahmed who was killed in the mutiny along with her wife.​
 

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