824 charged in Bangladesh for 2009 BDR mutiny

Bangladesh on Monday charged 824 people, most of them BDR personnel, for the 2009 bloody mutiny in which 57 army officers, including the organisation chief Major General Shakil Ahmed were massacred reports the Press Trust of India.

The charges ranged from murder, conspiracy, looting military arsenals and aiding and abetting mutiny, officials said, adding that the trial would take one year to complete.

Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on Monday submitted the charge sheet against 801 border guards and 23 civilians in the February 25 - 26 mutiny in Peelkhana that led to the death of 74 people, including 57 army officers.

CID special superintendent Abdul Kahar Akand, also the investigation officer (IO) of the case, submitted the charge sheet before the chief metropolitan magistrate’s court, the Star online said.

Former Bangladesh Nationalist Party lawmaker Nasiruddin Ahmed Pintu and Awami League leader Torab Ali were also accused as being the masterminds behind the 33-hour mutiny.

All of the accused, who are being tried in Bangladesh’s civil courts, have been charged with murder and could face the death penalty, a top official said.

A total of 2,307 people have so far been arrested in this connection. Of them, 2,282 were taken on remand and 543 have given confessional statements, the report said.

Meanwhile, on Monday the government also approved the draft Border Guards Bangladesh Act 2010, which sets death as the maximum penalty for mutiny.

In November last year, Bangladesh set up six “special courts” headed by its then director general Major General Mainul Islam to try the soldiers linked to the February 25 - 26 mutiny, just two months after the installation of the new government following the landmark December 29, 2008 parliamentary polls.

The government had decided to try the suspected massacre culprits under the fast track ‘Speedy Trial Tribunal’ and others who extended support to the mutiny but did not take part in the killings under the BDR Act.

The Speedy Trial Tribunal will try the suspects under the civil Penal Code, which prescribes capital punishment for offenses like murder while the BDR Act suggests a maximum of seven years of imprisonment for breaching discipline in the command chain or major service irregularities.

An estimated 3,500 soldiers who joined the mutiny as it spread to some 40 border posts across the country are being tried in special military courts, which were set up by the BDR, on lesser charges.

Over 200 border guards so far have already been jailed for various terms under the BDR Act in six special courts headed by the chief of the organisation.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 13^th, 2010.