Over 9,000 jawans lost job following mutiny
Over 9,000 jawans of the erstwhile Bangladesh Rifles lost their jobs for their involvement in the mutiny in Pilkhana headquarters and 46 other units across the country on February 25-26.
The 33-hour rebellion that killed 74 people including 57 army officers at Pilkhana headquarters of the then BDR shook the country and prompted the authority to rename the over 200 year-old force to Border Guard Bangladesh or BGB.
Following the mutiny, 17,306 border guards were convicted by 11 special courts and 60 summary trial courts headed by the commanding officers of different units of BGB.
“Of the convicts, 9,019 were either dismissed or sent on forced retirement,” Maj General Aziz Ahmed, Director General of BGB, told The Daily Star in a recent interview.
The rest 8,287 convicts either faced different jail terms or punishments like demotion, withholding of promotion and increments and reprimand. Most of them, however, retained their jobs, the BGB chief said.
Earlier, the maximum penalty for rebellion was seven years in jail as per the Bangladesh Rifles Order 1972, but the government in 2010 passed the Border Guard Bangladesh Act- 2010 which set death as the maximum penalty for mutiny.
Six thousand and forty-six BDR jawans were accused of the mutiny at Pilkhana headquarters where the rebellion broke out minutes after the then BDR chief started the Darbar or the annual gathering of the force around 9:00am on February 25, 2009. Within hours, the mutiny spread to 46 other BDR units across the country.
Of them, 5,926 jawans were convicted for the mutiny and awarded different jail terms ranging from a month to highest seven years. The rest 115 were acquitted of the charges and charges against five 5 others were dropped by the BGB special courts.
BDR jawans accused of grave offences like killing are being tried separately in civilian courts under the Penal Code and could face death penalty if convicted.
The summary trial courts of BGB tried 11,265 accused. Of them, exemplary punishments (forced retirement or dismissal) were awarded to 2,978 jawans while the rest 8,287 were handed down punishments like reprimand, demotion and withholding of promotion and increment.
During the trials, the prosecution said the accused conspired to stage the rebellion. They disobeyed orders of the then DG following a gunshot outside and fled the Darbar Hall leaving the officers an easy target of the mutineers.
The convicts either directly took part in the mutiny or helped mutineers execute their plans while some just looked on as mutineers rampaged through the headquarters, killing, burning and looting.
The prosecution brought charges of looting the armoury, disobeying and insulting high-ranking officers, not informing the high-ups of the mutiny plot, provoking the mutineers and feeding incorrect information to journalists.
-With The Daily Star input
