BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has said the trial of the 2009 BDR mutiny was not fair.
Fakhrul said this while talking to reporters after placing a wreath at the monument set up at the Military Graveyard in Dhaka's Banani on Tuesday, marking the 11th anniversary of the mutiny.
He said:"An accurate trial has not been served. The full investigation report by the army into the incident has yet to be published. Although the matter is regretful, the truth is that we could not find any independence of the judiciary."
Flanked by party leaders, Fakhrul paid tributes and offered prayers for the departed soul of the army officers, who were killed in the mutiny at the headquarters of the erstwhile Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) at Pilkhana in the capital.
On February 25, 2009, several hundred Bangladesh Rifles (now Border Guard Bangladesh) men rose up in armed revolt at Darbar Hall during the three-day "BDR Week" inside the Pilkhana headquarters and killed 74 people, including 57 deputed army officers.
The mutiny finally ended the following day with the surrender of the firearms, ammunition and grenades through a negotiation between the government and the BDR rebels.
Following the mutiny, the paramilitary force was renamed Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB).
A total of 58 cases were filed -- one for serious crimes, including murder and looting, and the rest for mutiny, in connection with the incident.
On November 27, 2017, the High Court announced the verdict in the country's largest-ever killing case, sentencing 152 people to death and 423 others to different jail terms and acquitting 277.
The court, however, is yet to release the full text of the verdict.
Among the convicts, 262 mutineers were sentenced to different jail terms starting from three months to 19 years and 161 people, including late BNP leader Nasiruddin Ahmed Pintu and local Awami League leader Torab Ali, were sentenced to life imprisonment.
On the other hand, a total of 5,926 BDR personnel were sentenced to different jail terms ranging from four months to seven years in the 57 mutiny cases.
