A special court yesterday sentenced 23 border guards to different terms in jail for their involvement in 2009 BDR mutiny in Lalmonirhat.
The court acquitted one of the 24 accused jawans of the district’s 31 Rifles Battalion.
A three-member panel handed down the 23 jawans prison terms ranging from four months to five years and fined Tk 100 each.
The verdict was passed in presence of the defendants, reports our Lalmonirhat correspondent.
Dinajpur Sector Commander Col Muhammad Saleh Ahmad headed the panel also comprising Lt Col Mahfuz Alam and Major Didar Al Latif.
The two-day mutiny that had sparked at the Bangladesh Rifles headquarters in Pilkhana on February 25, 2009 spread to different barracks across the country.
Foyezur Rahman, the then officer-in-charge of Lalmonirhat Sadar Police Station, filed two separate cases with the Chief Judicial Magistrate’s Court against the 24 mutineers.
The mutineers were later arrested and produced before the court that sent them to custody, said a BDR official.
In the case statement, the complainant alleged the BDR men revolted against their officers and took control of the battalion headquarters on February 26, 2009. They also vandalised the headquarters and fired at least 150 blank shots.
Of the convicts, four BDR men — Nizam Uddin, Sirazul Haque, Shahadat Hossain and Abdur Rahman — were jailed for one year, eight — Sameul Islam, Toslur Rahman, Asaduzzaman, Motiur Rahman, Joynal Abedin, Dulal Hossain, Parvez Alam and Abul Kalam Azad — one year and six months, Mohabbot Ali and Tariqul Islam two years, Kamor Uddin two years and six months while Pronayan Chakma and Nazrul Islam for five years.
Of the other six, Amir Hossain and Ashraful Huda got nine months’ jail term, Rokon Khalasi six months, Nazmul Shahadat four years, Habibur Rahman one year and three months while Yusuf Ali four months.
The court acquitted Abu Siddique, as his involvement in the mutiny was not proved.
Earlier BDR jawans Nizam Uddin, Samedul Islam, Yusuf Ali, Sirajul Haque, Toslur Rahman, Asaduzzaman, Motiur Rahman, Nazmul Shahadat, Habibur Rahman, Joynal Abedin, Ashraful Huda, Rokon, Dulal Hossain, Abu Bakkar, Shahadat Hossain, Amir Hossain and Abdur Rahman confessed to their involvement in the mutiny while the rest seven, Parvez Hasan, Kamor Uddin, Abu Siddique, Nazrul Islam, Pronayan Chakma, Mohabbat Ali and Tariqul Islam, claimed innocence, a BDR official said.
Meanwhile, the Special Court-10 yesterday read out individual charges against another 131 accused jawans of BDR hospital unit of at Pilkhana.
With this, the court at the Pilkhana Darbar Hall has so far completed reading out individual charges against 230, out of total 256 accused jawans of the unit. It read out the charges against 99 accused on Monday.
The charges include leaving the Darbar Hall defying the orders of the then BDR director general, establishing control over the subordinates at the BDR hospital, not informing the higher authorities about the mutiny, not taking any steps to prevent the mutiny and grabbing arms and ammunition from the armouries.
The three-member court headed by Col Khondokar Obaydul Ahsan adjourned the trial proceedings till 10:00am today.
Seventy-four people including 57 army officers were killed during the carnage on February 25-26 last year at the Pilkhana headquarters.
