Dhaka: A paramilitary court on Wednesday jailed
84 more soldiers for different terms for their role in the
2009 mutiny at Bangladesh Rifles force, bringing the total
number of sentenced rebel border guards to 2,088.
The carnage at the paramilitary force killed 74
people, including 57 army officers serving the frontier force.
"They are convicted as all evidence... proved beyond
doubt the charges against all the 84 accused soldiers of BDR
Dhaka Sadar Sector," said judge of the special BDR court
Colonel Iftekharuddin Mahmud.
23 of the convicts were handed down the highest seven
years of jail term under the BDR Act while others were given
lesser jail terms ranging from four months to six years.
Mahmud, however, added that the service records of the
accused and their role or that of their close family members
were taken into consideration in delivering the judgement.
The judge acknowledged that the still and video
footages taken by journalists during the worst ever rebellion
were admitted as crucial evidence of the trial.
The trial was staged at the makeshift court at BDR`s
Pilkhana headquarters, the scene of the February 25-26, 2009
carnage. The barefooted accused appeared in plainclothes in
handcuffs and shackles from different jails under strict
security vigil.
The judgement came under a parallel trial process that
is on in 11 paramilitary courts across the country under the
BDR Act.
The 848 main suspects in the mutiny await indictment
in a civil court in Dhaka under the tougher Penal Code under
which death penalties can also be given for murdering military
officers.
A BDR spokesman said 2,088 rebel frontier guards
belonging to 48 units across the country have already been
jailed for different terms while 3,958 more await trial under
in the 11 paramilitary courts.
The rebels went on a killing spree during the 33-hour
revolt at their headquarters. The then BDR chief Major General
Shakil Ahmed and the border guards Dhaka sector chief Colonel
Mojibul Haque were also killed.
The bodies of army officers` were later dumped in
sewers and shallow graves.
The mutiny swiftly spread to BDR`s regional
headquarters and units across the country, with thousands of
guards taking up weapons against their commanding officers
though they killed none outside Dhaka.
The rebellious soldiers at that time had claimed that
a sense of "deprivation" had prompted them to stage the
mutiny.
They demanded the frontier force be freed from
"military domination". Eight civilians, eight BDR soldiers and
an army soldier were also killed apart from the 57 military
officers.
A government committee report said a certain quarter
had staged the mutiny using a sense of deprivation of the
ordinary BDR soldiers but only a few BDR men knew about the
killing plot.
The metropolitan sessions judge`s court of Dhaka is
expected to indict in two weeks nearly 850 suspected core
culprits -- 815 of them being border guards -- on charges of
murdering the 74 people under a plot, taking hostages and
torturing their family members, lootings and arsons.
The rest 23 are civilians including former lawmaker of
the Bangladesh Nationalist Party Nasiruddin Ahmed Pintu, and
Torab Ali, a local leader of ruling Awami League.
Officials could not predict how long it might take the
court to dispose the case but the prosecution lawyers said in
no case they expected the trial to be completed in less than
one and half years at the lower court.
In line with a Supreme Court directive, the government
earlier decided that the BDR soldiers who were directly linked
to the killings, lootings and arsons at Pilkhana headquarters
would be tried in a civil court under the civil Penal Code.
The frontier force, meanwhile, witnessed a massive
reconstruction campaign with its already name changed to
Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB). Its laws, uniform and monogram,
were also changed with an aim to free the force of the mutiny
stigma.
PTI
