Court Correspondent
A special court in Dhaka Tuesday sentenced 152 convicted accused to death, 161 others including BNP leader Nasiruddin Ahmad Pintu and ward Awami League leader Torab Ali Akand to life term imprisonment while acquitted 271 others in the BDR carnage case.
Judge Dr Md Akhteruzzaman of Dhaka,s Third Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge Court pronounced the verdict in a makeshift court set up on the Madrasa-e Alia ground at Bakshibazar in the capital.
Pintu and Torab Ali were also fine Tk 5 lakh each. Besides, 262 other people were sentenced to imprisonment for different terms from 3 months 10 years. The accused people were earlier brought to the makeshift court.
In connection with the mutiny, three cases were filed for mutiny, murder and illegal use of explosives and other substances.
In the murder case, about 850 people including 23 civilians were, made accused. Four of them died and 20 are on the run. Besides, secured bail from the court. Court source says that three of them-Zohra Khatun, Abdus Salam of Naogaon and Runa Akhter of Jessore could not appear to the court Tuesday due to the 60-hour countrywide shutdown sponsored by the BNP-led 18-party alliance.
A total of 787 people were made accused in the case filed under the Explosive Substances Act.
A total of 73 people, including 57 senior army officers were killed during the mutiny on February 25-26, 2009 at Pilkhana Headquarters of the then BDR and later renamed as Border Guard Bangladesh, BGB.
Of 1,350 listed witnesses, 654 including six ruling party MPs and ministers-Shahara Khatun and state minister Jahangir Kabir Nanak, MP Mirza Azam, MP Sheikh Selim and Barrister Fazle Noor Tapas testified to the court.
Former IGP Nur Mohammad, former DG of RAB Hasan Mahmud Khandaker, former Air Force Chief Air Marshal Shah Md Ziaur Rahman, Vice Admiral Zahir Uddin Ahmed and several journalists also testified in the case.
Lalbagh Police Station Officer-in-charge (OC) Nabajyoti Khisa filed the cases first with Lalbagh Police Station and then with New Market Police Station. One murder case and two cases under the Explosive Substances Act were filed.
Abdul Kahar Akhand, Senior Special Superintendent of Civil Investigation Department (CID), submitted the charge sheet of the murder case against 850 accused on July 12, 2010 and the case filed under the Explosive Substances Act on July 27 of the same year.
Originally, charge sheet was submitted against 850 accused in the murder case.
On January 5, 2011, the court took into cognizance of the charges of murder case and framed charges against 850 accused.
Of the accused 543 made confessional statements admitting their involvement in the mutiny to the court under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
Security had been beefed up around the court with deployment of police, RAB and BGB personnel.
Most of the more than 800 soldiers who packed the civilian court had already been jailed by military tribunals.
The 30-hour uprising over pay and other grievances broke out in Dhaka and left 74 people dead, 57 of them officers.
The mutiny began at the Bangladeshi Rifles headquarters in the capital. Senior officers were killed and their bodies dumped in sewers and shallow graves.
The revolt spread to other army bases around the country before the mutineers surrendered. Nearly 6,000 soldiers have already been jailed by military courts.
Many soldiers who packed into the special civilian court in Dhaka on Tuesday were charged with murder, torture, conspiracy and other offences.
“The atrocities were so heinous that even the dead bodies were not given their rights,” Judge Mohammad Akhtaruzzaman said as he read out the verdicts.
But the judge said that the soldiers should have been given better pay and privileges to defuse resentment, adding they could not afford to send their children to military-owned schools.
Several of those convicted screamed at the judge in rage, with one elderly soldier crying out: “I am innocent. You will face Allah’s wrath.”
“I don’t need a life term. Hang me, hang me,” another shouted. The trial of the mutineers by military and civilian courts has been one of the biggest in Bangladesh’s history.
It has also been one of the most sensitive, rivalled only by verdicts throughout this year by a tribunal investigating war crimes committed during the 1971 war of independence.
While the military tribunal investigated breaches of military law in relation to the mutiny, the specially-convened civilian court was probing individual crimes committed during the uprising.
Of those being tried on Tuesday, some 152 were sentenced to death, 159 given life sentences and the remainder received sentences of between three to 10 years. About 277 were acquitted.
But correspondents say that few of those acquitted will actually be able to walk free because their convictions by the military court still stand.
The trial process has been criticised by a human rights groups who say it was not credible – at least 50 suspects died in custody. A handful have also either escaped from custody or are on the run. Members of the BDR, since renamed as Border Guards Bangladesh, say they revolted over demands for salaries in line with their army commanders. They also wanted to be deployed on lucrative UN peacekeeping missions, which come with generous benefits. But the revolt over pay and conditions spiralled into an orgy of violence against their superiors.
The case exposed deep tensions between the government and the powerful military, who were angered over Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s decision to negotiate with the mutineers instead of allowing the army to attack.
Those convicted have the right to appeal, a process which could take many months given the number of cases. – Court Correspondent and BBC
