Govt to seek SC opinion

BDR MUTINY TRIAL
Govt to seek SC opinion 
The government has decided to seek opinion of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court to fix the mode of trial of the February 25-26 massacre inside the paramilitary BDR headquarters, law minister Shafique Ahmed said on Monday.
‘We have decided today to refer the matter to the Appellate Division on behalf of the president to ensure a fair trial (of the carnage) in the quickest possible time,’ Ahmed told a crowded press briefing at the home ministry following a meeting of concerned government leaders, officials and independent legal experts.
He said an opinion of the Supreme Court is expected in next one week providing a direction as the government was in a dilemma if the trial should be held under the Army Act or civil Penal Code while the BDR Act provided no scope for trial of such massacres or mutinies in the paramilitary force.
The minister said the decision was taken for the Appellate Division referral under the Article 106 of the Constitution.
‘If at any time it appears to the president that question of law has arisen, or is likely to arise, which is of such a nature and of such public importance that it is expedient to obtain the opinion of the Supreme Court upon it, he may refer the question to the Appellate Division for consideration and the division may, after such hearing as it thinks fit, report its opinion thereon to the president,’ the article read.
Asked if there was any precedence when any such case was referred to the Supreme Court in the past for opinion, the law minister answered in the negative.
‘There is no precedence of any such gruesome carnage either,’ Ahmed said.
The briefing came after a high-level meeting chaired by the law minister and attended by commerce minister Faruq Khan and state minister for law, Qumrul Islam.
Attorney general Mahbube Alam, home secretary Abdus Sobhan Sikdar, legal experts advocates Anisul Haque and Mosharraf Hossain, BDR director general Maj Gen Mainul Islam, judge advocate general of army Brig Gen Noor Mohammad were, among others, to take part in the more than hour-long discussion on the procedure of the trial.
Officials and experts earlier said the BDR carnage visibly exposed them to a dilemma about the trial mode and several of them suggested it be held under the Army Act as both the suspects and victims belonged to disciplined forces while the existing BDR Act did not foresee possibilities of any such mutiny or massacre in the paramilitary force.
But several others, however, feared that the trial under the Army Act could be challenged in the Supreme Court eventually lingering the prosecution process and frustrating the very objective of quick trial of the culprits and proposed the trail be held under the civil Penal Code.
The highest punishment prescribed in BDR Act is seven years of imprisonment for breach of command chain or indiscipline.
BDR and Criminal Investigation Department (CID), which was tasked to carryout the routine police investigation in the case said so far 1798 BDR soldiers who were stationed at their Pilkhana headquarters on February 25-26 were arrested for their suspected involvement in the mutiny or massacre.
They said 1614 arrested soldiers were remanded in custody for interrogation so far and over 450 of them were quizzed by Taskforce Intelligence (TFI) that comprises officials of different intelligence and law enforcement agencies.
Another 1,723 BDR soldiers were detained in 29 frontier districts for staging mutiny, breaking in arsenals and looting weapons as the rebellion broke out in Pilkhana headquarters in Dhaka.
CID’s main investigation officer of the case Abdul Kahhar Akand earlier told BSS that nearly 30 civilians, including a former lawmaker of ex-prime minister Khalida Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party, were also arrested so far for their suspected involvement in the mutiny.
BDR earlier this month sent a letter to concerned government authorities suggesting trial of the paramilitary soldiers under the Army Act since both the ‘offenders and victims’ of the rebellion belonged to ‘disciplined armed forces’.
Asked if the trial of the rebellious soldiers would be compatible with the ongoing investigation under the civil Criminal Procedure Code, the BDR chief said there would be no contradiction under the principle of ‘concurrent jurisdiction’ of law.
He said the BDR Act was not suitable for the trial of the rebellious soldiers’ as it did not have any provision for such trial of any mutiny while the section 5 of the Army Act allowed the government to try members of any disciplined force under the military law in court marshal.
The law minister Shafique Ahmed earlier said there was no bar in trying the suspected rebel BDR soldiers under the Army Act as the BDR Act only dealt with the routine affairs of the paramilitary troops. Fifty-seven military officers serving on deputation at the border force, including its director general Maj Gen Shakil Ahmed, were killed as the rebellious soldiers carried out the carnage protesting what they claimed deprivation.
CID officials said they were progressing satisfactorily with their investigations to indict the culprits while a high-powered government committee headed by a retired secretary to the government and a high- level military probe body earlier completed their investigations into the rebellion.
The government committee report said a certain quarter staged the mutiny using a sense of deprivation of the ordinary BDR soldiers but only a few BDR men knew about killing plot while it bluntly admitted ‘without hesitation that the real causes and objectives of the gruesome incident could not be ascertained clearly and it requires further investigations’.

Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha . Dhaka