Prosecutors of the BDR carnage case on Sunday sought capital punishment for all of the accused for plotting and carrying out the looting of arsenal, torture and murders during the February 25-26 rebellion inside the Pilkhana headquarters.
“Through verbal and documentary evidences we have been able to prove the charges against the 850 persons accused in the charge sheet, including 823 BDR jawans, one Ansar member and 23 civilians beyond any shadow of doubt and in the interest of justice, we pray for capital punishment,” Chief Public Prosecutor Anisul Huq told the Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge’s Court 3 yesterday at the end of the prosecution’s arguments.
The prosecutor said the BDR mutiny, in which 57 senior and mid-ranking army officers, including the then BDR chief Maj Gen Shakil Ahmed, were killed besides 17 others, was not a result of old spite against the army command, rather there were ulterior motives.
“If there were none, they would not have killed the family members of the army officials working in deputation there. They would not kill the doctors of BDR Hospital, against whom they did not have any complaints, or the guests, who came to visit the officials’ families and did not know what was happening around that day,” he said.
After the prosecution’s argument, defence counsels sought time from the court. Court fixed October 2 to hear their arguments.
During the argument, Anisul said, according to BDR Act 1972, if any member of Bangladesh Rifles (BDR), which is now BGB, has any objection to anything they can raise it to their superior command but not to any person outside the force.
But some BDR men met political persons like Awami League leader Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh, presidium member Sheikh Fazlul Karim and placed their demands including 100% ration, promotion and sending jawans to UN missions before the last parliamentary election.
After the present government came to the power, they resorted to the conspiracy. They tried to meet the home minister.
The rebels rented a house near Pilkhana to hold meetings two-and-half months before the mutiny, they contacted a private TV channel reporter to telecast the allegations, printed leaflets containing their demands. The leaflets were spread inside of Pilkhana four days before the mutiny.
All these prove that they were plotting conspiracy for a long time, Anisul Huq said. He said during the mutiny the BDR jawans committed personal crimes and collective crimes.
“The defence counsels can argue that 20-25 rebels were involved in the killing. But we must ask why hundreds of jawans were carrying arms. The rest could have disarmed the miscreants, but they did not. Because they were all involved,” he said.
“Nobody goes to Darbar Hall with arms. It is a tradition. But they did. They broke into the armoury before the Darbal began, as it was pre-planned,” he said.
“This shows that if anyone says the mutiny was a result of spite, that is wrong,” he said.
Prosecutor Mosharraf Hossain Kajol during the hearing argued that it would not have been possible for the rebelling jawans to search and kill every army officer, search every house and torture family members and bury the dead bodies in mass graves if everyone was not involved directly or indirectly.