Dhaka: A special court on Monday handed down
jail terms ranging from four months to seven years to 56 more
border guards for their role in the bloody mutiny that killed
57 Bangladeshi army officers.
Taking the total number of rebel soldiers sent to
prison to 182, in two weeks, the three-member paramilitary
court led by BDR`s outgoing chief Major General Mainul Islam
handed down the sentences, in fourth such verdict against
"ordinary mutineers" amongst the border guards.
The court had yesterday also sentenced 57 border guards
to prison terms ranging from four months to seven years.
The convicts were charged on charges of defying
orders, taking weapons breaking arsenal and firing gunshots
and frightening the officers with death threats at sector and
battalion headquarters in frontier districts as well as in the
capital during the February 25-26 BDR carnage when the rebels
killed 57 army officers serving the frontier force.
"This verdict has freed the 7 Rifles Battalion of the
stigma of rebellion," Islam said, as he pronounced the verdict
acquitting four of the 60 accused after trial under the
relatively lenient BDR Act, which prescribed the highest seven
years of imprisonment for ordinary breach of discipline.
Of the convicts 24 BDR men were sentenced to seven
years` term, four to five years`, three to four years and six
months`, five to four years`, three to three years, one to
two years and six months, four to two years`, two to one year
and six months, six to thirteen months, one to six months and
another three to four months.
The judgement came as the accused were escorted to
the makeshift courtroom at the 7 Rifles Battalion headquarters
at Satkhira as armed police and elite anti-crime Rapid Action
Battalion (RAB) troops kept a sharp vigil. The accused were in
their combat uniform but were not allowed put on their caps
and belts in line with the norms of the combat forces trial.
A total of 126 border guards were jailed so far
under three such previous verdicts as the government earlier
decided to try the "ordinary mutineers", who did not take part
in indiscriminate killings or lootings during the massacre
under the relatively lenient BDR Act.
BDR officials said under the paramilitary force`s
law over 1500 soldiers so far were faced with trial in Dhaka
and different frontier districts and more others were likely
to be charged to be tried in phases in six paramilitary
courts, all headed by the BDR chief.
The others are to be tried under the tough Speedy
Trial Tribunal under the civil penal Code suggesting the
highest death penalty while the Criminal Investigation
Department (CID) of police said they nearly finalised their
investigations against the suspected massacre culprits.
CID officials said the prepared an initial list of
some 900 BDR soldiers out of around 2,100 detained border
guards to be charged for their alleged involvement in killings
and lootings keeping the family members of the army officers
at their Pilkhana headquarters hostage.
Seventy-four people, including the 57 senior army
officers, were killed in the 33-hour siege, which shook the
newly elected government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
A government committee report said a certain quarter
staged the mutiny using a sense of deprivation of the ordinary
BDR soldiers but only a few BDR men knew about killing plot.
The report bluntly admitted "without hesitation that
the real causes and objectives of the gruesome incident could
not be ascertained clearly and it requires further
investigations."
The government recently approved "in principle" a
proposed law for massive reconstruction of the mutiny infested
BDR border force renaming it as Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB)
and prescribing death penalty for such mutiny while a new
combat uniform was already introduced for the border guards as
part of the reforms.
PTI
