HC begins proceedings to deliver verdict on 2009 BDR mutiny

Dhaka: The Bangladesh High Court on Sunday started delivering the verdict in the death sentence of 152 convicted soldiers of the then Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) over the killing of 74 people during the 2009 mutiny at the border guards' headquarters here.

A three-member bench of the High Court began reading out the verdict, which comes four years after a lower court handed down death penalty to 152 BDR mutineers, but adjourned till tomorrow.

"It is a long verdict and the court will require time to go through the entire judgment...It is unlikely that the bench could deliver the entire verdict today," a court official said.

The full text of the verdict is said to be of about 10,000 pages.

The bench said they will not be able to deliver the order today as it will take them some more time to finish the observation part and move to the next. The bench, however, did not fix the date for delivering the order in the case.

A Dhaka court had awarded death penalty to 152 jawans and non-commissioned officers of the erstwhile Bangladesh Rifles (BDR), which was renamed as the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), in November 2013.

The court sentenced 158 to life imprisonment, three to 10 years of imprisonment to 251 others, and acquitted 271.

The BDR jawans had been accused of masterminding the mutiny plots, torturing and killing their officers, looting their belongings or keeping their family members captive during the rebellion.

They had also killed eight civilians, eight fellow BDR soldiers who apparently were opposed to the revolt and an army soldier apart from the 57 military officers.

Legal experts had called it the country's biggest ever criminal trial in which some 800 ex-paramilitary soldiers had been accused of the murder of 74 people, including 57 military officers during the revolt in February 2009.

The bench heard the death references and appeals for over a year during which BDR's former deputy assistant director Touhid Ahmed, a soldier-turned-officer, appeared as the key leader of the mutineers. He was also given the capital punishment.

Two civilians, who were awarded the life term, included former lawmaker of main opposition BNP Nasiruddin Ahmed Pintu and Awami League leader and ex-BDR soldier Torab Ali as they were found guilty of collaborating with the mutineers.

Pintu died few years ago.

Bangladesh had renamed the mutiny-stained force as BGB in 2012 under a massive reconstruction campaign that also witnessed the changes in the border force's law, uniform, flag and monogram as part of desperate efforts to free the force from the stigma of rebellion.

The rebel BDR soldiers staged the mutiny, alleging "deprivation", at the force's Pilkhana headquarters in Bangladesh capital on February 25, 2009. It soon spread at the frontier force's sector headquarters and regional units across the country.

The soldiers turned their guns on their commanders, shot them from close range or hacked and tortured them to death. They hid their bodies in sewers and hurriedly dug graves and also held captive their frightened family members and humiliated them in barracks.

They had set the date for staging the revolt coinciding with the annual Darbar or meeting of ordinary soldiers with the top brasses while the then BDR chief Major General Shakil Ahmed was their first victim.

The casualties took place at Pilkhana alone during the mutiny when the rebel soldiers outside Dhaka defied the command, took charge of the armoury and came out of their barracks confining their commanders from military inside.

The rebels went on a killing spree during the 33-hour revolt at Pilkhana when they also murdered the then Dhaka sector chief Colonel Mojibul Haque and other army officers.

The mutiny was a challenge for the newly elected government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. It also angered the army officers as they lost 57 colleagues serving the paramilitary border force on deputation.