The verdict in the case of killings in a rebellion at the border force headquarters in 2009 is scheduled to be delivered today, officials said.
Third additional metropolitan sessions court judge Md Akhtaruzaman is likely to start delivering the verdict at about 9:30am at the makeshift courtroom at Bakshibazar Alia Madrasa playground in the capital.
The court had earlier set October 30 for pronouncing the verdict on the completion of the final arguments by the prosecution and the defence on October 20 but deferred the date to November 5 due to unavoidable circumstances.
Law enforcement agencies in a meeting decided that a four-tier security would be in place for the day of the verdict while prison authorities also tightened security.
‘Foolproof security will be in place for the day,’ Lalbagh division deputy commissioner Harun-or-Rashid told New Age after the meeting.
Only police units, including Rapid Action Battalion and armed police battalion, would be deployed to the makeshift court and its surroundings, the police added.
The rebellion broke out in the headquarters of the
Border Guard Bangladesh, then known as Bangladesh Rifles, in the capital Dhaka on February 25 and spilled over to other battalion and sector headquarters.
The rebellion continued for two days and 75 people, including 57 army officers deputed to the border force, were killed.
The BDR was renamed as BGB and its uniform and formations were also changed after the rebellion.
The police later filed two cases – one for the killings and criminal offences and the other for other crimes under the Explosive Substances Act – with the nearby New Market police.
A 350-member Criminal Investigation Department team led by special superintendent Abdul Kahar Akand investigated the cases for 16 months before charge-sheet submission.
Kahar told the court that he had talked with prime minister Sheikh Hasina and taken ‘notes’ but did not name her as a prosecution witness.
The CID in two phases pressed charges against 850 people, mostly officers and soldiers, on charge of dozens of criminal offences such as killing, arson, conspiracy and other crimes.
Of the accused, four already died and the trial of 20 BDR personnel was held in their absence while 761 were riflemen, 41 civilian personnel, one Ansar member and 23 civilians, including former Bangladesh Nationalist Party lawmaker Nasiruddin Ahmed Pintu.
Of the accused, 13 have so far obtained bail from the court.
The trial in both the cases began on January 5, 2011 in a makeshift courtroom set up at Bakshibazar in Dhaka. The verdict in the murder case will be delivered today. The other case is still pending.
On the 231st working day, chief prosecutor Anisul Huq, who flew to Canada on October 29 before the scheduled date for delivery of the verdict, had appealed for exemplary punishment of the culprits so that none could dare to commit such crimes in future.
On October 20, the chief prosecutor said that the accused had committed murders and loot through conspiracy. He argued that the charges that they had brought against the 846 accused had been proved ‘beyond reasonable doubt.’
According to the prosecution, Syed Tawhidul Alam, the then deputy assistant director, along with 13 other BDR personnel had held a meeting with prime minister Sheikh Hasina, at her then official residence Jamuna where they had concealed the fact that many officers had already been killed.
The prosecution said that the BDR personnel had plotted the carnage in separate meetings, distributed leaflets to instigate soldiers and finally killed the officers.
A number of ministers, lawmakers, the then chiefs of the navy and the air force, and the then inspector general of police, among others, gave depositions in the case.
Army officers deputed to the BDR at that time, family members of the victims or victims themselves and BDR personnel also gave depositions against the accused.
The defence, however, argued that the prosecution had failed to establish the involvement of all the accused in the killings and other crimes committed during the bloody rebellion that broke out from the Durbar Hall in the BDR Week 2009.
On September 2, the court wrapped up the depositions of prosecution witnesses with the recording of the depositions of 654 out of 1,345 prosecution witnesses, mostly BGB soldiers and army officers, against the accused.
One of the defence counsels, Khandaker Jamal Uddin, said many important prosecution witnesses were not produced before the court.
A total of 24 defence witnesses, including accused Selim Reza, 35, the then sepoy (clerk assistant) of the BDR, also gave deposition pleading not guilty.
Selim Reza told the court that he had met some officers in jail who told him they had been dismissed from the army for shouting at the prime minister’s programme at Senakunja after the BDR mutiny.
‘The [dismissed] officers told me that a group of 12 men from India had entered the Peelkhana on the day of the mutiny… Intelligence agencies later sent the team back by air,’ he said.
The rebellion broke out two months after the Awami League-led government had assumed office.
After the carnage, a number of special courts of the border force led by army officers deputed to the BGB sentenced 5,926 soldiers to imprisonment for various terms – from four months to seven years – on charges of taking up arms against their officers in 57 cases, including 11 in Dhaka.
According to the government, 18,520 personnel of the border force have been tried for taking part in the rebellion.
-With New Age input
