Bangladesh is observing the 14th martyrdom anniversary of those killed in the 2009 Pilkhana carnage with due respect.
Marking the day, tributes were paid to the victims by placing wreaths on their graves at Banani Military Graveyeard on Saturday.
Mehedi Hasan/Dhaka TribuneRepresentatives of the president, the prime minister and representatives of military-civilian officials and relatives paid homage to the victims by placing wreaths at the graveyard.
The military secretaries to the president and the prime minister paid tribute at the beginning.
Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan, chiefs of the three services of the Armed Forces and the BGB director general also paid tributes.
Mehedi Hasan/Dhaka TribuneLeaders of various socio-cultural and political organizations also paid floral tributes to the victims.
On February 25, 2009, several hundred Bangladesh Rifles or BDR (now Border Guard Bangladesh) men staged an armed revolt at the Darbar Hall of the force's Pilkhana Headquarters in Dhaka. They killed 74 people, including 57 army officers.
The mutiny ended the following day with the surrender of firearms, ammunition, and grenades through a negotiation between the government and the BDR rebels.
Later in 2017, the High Court upheld the death penalty for 139 people, commuted the capital punishment of eight people to life sentences and acquitted four others. It also upheld the life imprisonment of 146 and jailed 196 for different terms.
Mehedi Hasan/Dhaka TribuneMeanwhile, 468 accused of the blast case are languishing in jail as the trial is not completed even after 14 years of the incident.
Of the 468, a total of 278 BDR soldiers were acquitted in the murder case, while 190 were convicted of different terms of imprisonment. Although they were acquitted of the charges or concluded their jail term, they did not come out of jail due to the blast case.
