In an unprecedented verdict, a Dhaka court on Tuesday handed down death sentences to 151 former BDR personnel, and to at least one civilian, for killing 57 army officers and 17 civilians during a mutiny in the force’s Pilkhana headquarters on February 25-26, 2009.
The court also awarded life term jail sentences to 161 accused including former BNP lawmaker Nasiruddin Ahmed Pintu and a ward-level Awami League leader Torab Ali for their involvement in inciting and conspiring. The court also fined them different amounts of money.
A total of 846 people have been tried in the BDR carnage case out of a total of 850 accused. Four of the accused, all BDR personnel, died in jail during the trial. Of the 846 accused 778 were former BDR personnel and 23 were civilians.
Some of the convicts broke into tears after the judge pronounced the sentences in a crowded courtroom, while some other shouted that “injustice” was done to them.
On the other hand 277 of the accused came out of the court filled with joy as the judge acquitted them because the prosecution failed to prove the allegations against them.
This was the first time in the history of the country’s judiciary that such a overwhelming number of people were convicted in a criminal case.
Judge Dr Mohammad Akhtaruzzaman of the Third Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge’s Court of Dhaka handed down different terms ranging from one year to 20 years, and monetary penalty to the remaining 256 accused.
The accused have been convicted of several offences including murder, attempted murder, conspiracy, incitement, wilfully causing injuries using lethal weapons or means, holding officers and their families hostage, looting the armoury and using firearms without authority, theft, extortion, robbery and destruction of evidence by the hiding bodies.
Former BNP lawmaker Pintu has been convicted for his involvement with the conspiracy behind the carnage, while Awami League leader Torab Ali for inciting.
Five of the four accused deputy assistant directors (DAD) of former BDR Tauhidul Islam, Nasir Uddin Khan, Mirza Habibur Rahman and A Jalil have been awarded death sentences. Another accused DAD Abdur Rahim died in jail during the trial.
DAD Nasir was identified as a kingpin of the mutiny, who ordered the shooting of many of the officers outside the Darbar Hall after having hem kneel down in a line with hands above their heads, case charges said.
Nasir was in the 44 Rifle Battalion that had spearheaded the Pilkhana mutiny. One of the soldiers of that battalion murdered the then BDR Director General Shakil Ahmed, whose wife was also killed in the mutiny.
Many of the offences committed during the 33-hour mutiny were carried out under the leadership of DAD Nasir, sepoy Salim Reza and others. The judge gave sepoy Salim the death sentence.
Apart from the DADs, all the other accused have already been tried in BDR (now Border Guard Bangladesh) courts on mutiny charges.
Zakir Hossain, 32, was the only civilian whom the court had sent to the gallows. He is the son of BDR nayeb subader (retd) Kanchan Ali.
The trial of the carnage case began in August 2011. Considering the number of accused and the security needs of the court, the government built a special one-storey tin-shed structure at Bakshi Bazar near the Dhaka Central Jail.
A large number of law enforcers have been deployed in and outside the temporary court complex of the court since early on Tuesday to ensure fool proof security.
Journalists and lawyers started gathering in and outside the courtroom since early morning. Police brought 813 imprisoned accused from jail to the specially built dock. The dock was protected by iron grills. Except for a few including Pintu and Torab and the two female accused, everyone else were in fetter.
Twenty of the accused are still on the run and 13 have been freed on bail.
The judge sat in the bench of the court room at around 12:30pm. Before pronouncing only the “operative part” of the verdict, judge Akhtaruzzaman gave a short introduction: “This case has been initiated against the backdrop of a tragic incident.”
He said many times his body shivered when he went through the testimonies of the witnesses who had given chilling descriptions of the bloodbath.
“The victims were not just killed. The dead bodies were not given the due respect.”
The judge found some possible motives behind the carnage. After the mutiny, the force has been renamed to BGB. They had to bring on a lot of reforms to rebuild the force that guards about 4,000km of the country’s border.
The motives constituted various perspectives including political, economic, diplomatic, and social. The judge observed that military or para-military forces should not run any business venture.
The mutineers circulated a leaflet before the mutiny broke out. The Judge criticised this move saying if they had any demand they should have raised them before their high ups though proper channels.
The judge, however, said while some of the demands in the leaflet were logical, most baseless.
While he was reading out the part of the verdict containing the sentence, some of the convicts started shouting.
When the judge was reading out the list of the convicts given life term jail, one convict shouted: “There was no witness against me.” Another convict said: “The witness against me was false.” A middle-aged convicted kept on saying out loud: “I was not at Pilkhana during the mutiny.”
When police members were struggling to control them, a defence lawyer stood up and asked the convicts to keep silence because there were scopes to appeal against the verdict with the High Court. At one point they stopped shouting and were taken back to jail.
Some other convicts warned the judge: “Allah will deliver justice of this injustice.”
A similar situation arose when the death sentences were being pronounced.
Due to the shouting, at times it got difficult to get what the judge was saying. Even the judge had to pause for a while pronouncing the sentences. Some 24 accused at the dock claimed that they did not hear the verdict and so police could not take them back to jail.
The judge, who had already left the courtroom by then, had to come back to pronounce the verdict against 20.
But that was not all. He had to come back the third time to pronounce the verdict against the remaining four.
Besides, there were some errors in the copy of the verdict that the judge had read out. For example, the serial number sepoy Jasimuddin appeared both in the list of acquittal and the death sentences. Later, however, judge Akhtaruzzaman dropped Jasimuddin from the gallows list.
BNP leader Pintu sat in a chair quietly. He offered his Johr paryers on the dock. After hearing about his conviction, he told newsmen that there were false witnesses against him.
Only 10 widows of the 57 slain army officers came to the court amid opposition BNP-led 18 party alliance’s hartal.
Coming out of the courtroom, incumbent BGB chief Maj Gen Aziz said: “With this verdict, the families [of the deceased] will get some solace. The souls of the martyrs will have some peace. I lost many of my course-mates [in the mutiny]. The verdict has brought some peace for me as well. I do not have any compassion for those who had been punished. We had been waiting for this verdict for a long time. Finally, the BGB has been freed of the bloodstain.”
While the prosecution expressed satisfaction with the verdict, the defence as usual expressed disappointment and said they would appeal.
The widows, who were present in the courtroom, broke into tears after the verdict.
They said, they could not be satisfied until the verdict was implemented.
