A rally was held on Wednesday at the Central Shaheed Minar demanding the immediate release of detained Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) soldiers and their reinstatement in their jobs.
The protest was attended by family members of the detained soldiers and suspended BDR personnel, who raised seven demands.
The participants attempted to march toward State Guest House Jamuna, the residence of Chief Adviser Dr Mohammad Yunus, but law enforcement officials stopped the rally at Shahbagh.
Shahbagh Police Station Officer-in-Charge Khalid Mansur said: “They were attempting to march towards Jamuna but were stopped in front of Shahbagh Police Station, where they continued to gather.”
A delegation was later allowed to proceed with a memorandum containing their demands, while the remaining protesters staged a sit-in at the location.
The memorandum included demands for the formation of a neutral investigation committee to reinvestigate the killings of 74 people, including 57 army officers, 10 BDR soldiers, and 7 civilians; reinstatement of all suspended BDR soldiers and members of the 76th batch, with full salaries, allowances, and benefits; withdrawal of all false cases, including those under the Explosives Act, by January 9; immediate bail or release of innocent BDR members; determination of the exact causes of deaths of innocent BDR personnel allegedly tortured during remand and compensation for their families; inclusion of BDR soldiers’ demands in the proclamation of the July Revolution; and the declaration of February 25 as “Army Killing Day.”
The reinstatement of the 76th batch of BDR soldiers was a key demand. Protesters claimed this batch was under training in Chattogram during the 2009 mutiny but was unfairly dismissed.
According to the memorandum, 516 members of the batch were disqualified and later through police verification they were denied in all government job opportunities despite having no proven involvement in the mutiny.
On February 25–26, 2009, a mutiny at Dhaka's Pilkhana resulted in the deaths of 74 people, including 57 army officers.
Two cases were filed under the Murder and Explosives Acts. In 2013, the murder trial of 850 BDR personnel ended with 152 death sentences, 160 life imprisonments, and other varying sentences.
The High Court upheld 139 death sentences in 2017. Appeals and trials in the Explosives Act case remain pending.
In December 2024, the government formed a commission, led by ALM Fazlur Rahman, to re-investigate the Pilkhana killings.