At least 31 people were injured as the police used water cannons, hurled sound grenades and lobbed tear gas shells to disperse a group of sacked members of the erstwhile Bangladesh Rifles who had been demonstrating near the secretariat in Dhaka demanding reinstatement of their jobs on Monday.
Seven of the injured protesters took primary treatment at Dhaka Medical College Hospital, said DMCH police outpost in-charge Md Faruk. Â
A group of former BDR members, who were imprisoned after the 2009 BDR massacre and now released, and their family members brought out a procession from Central Shaheed Minar on the Dhaka University campus and advanced towards the secretariat but the police created obstacles on their way at Shiksha Bhaban point, according to witnesses and police.
They said that the protesters, being resisted by the police at about 12:45pm, blocked the road at the point, and vehicular movement in the area became a standstill.
The protesters, after about an hour, again tried to advance towards the secretariat and the police sprayed water on them using water cannons, hurled sound grenades and lobbed tear gas shells to disperse them.
Addressing a press conference at the Central Shaheed Minar in the evening, BDR Kalyan Parishad president Faizul Alam claimed that 31 protesters were injured in the police attack on their protest.
‘We will continue our protest until our demands are met,’ he said.
He said that they would stay at the Central Shaheed Minar to continue their protest.Â
He urged the government to punish the police officers involved in attacking them.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s Ramna Division deputy commissioner Masud Alam said that they had sprayed water, hurled sound grenades and lobbed tear gas shells to disperse the protesters from the spot as it was one of the important crossings in the capital.
The former BDR members and their families had been protesting since Sunday morning to press home their two demands – reinstatement of their jobs or adequate compensation for losing jobs, and securing bail for the members convicted through ‘false testimonies’ in the BDR mutiny case.
Though the protesters on Sunday announced that they would go to the chief adviser’s official residence Jamuna to stage their demonstration, they advanced towards the secretariat after holding an overnight sit-in at the Central Shaheed Minar.
On Sunday, the protesters held a demonstration near the Border Guard Bangladesh headquarters in Dhaka and submitted a memorandum to the BGB director general to press home the demands.
They are holding the protests ahead of April 10, the scheduled date for bail hearing in the case related to BDR carnage.
At least 74 people, including 57 army officers, were killed in the then BDR headquarters in the capital’s Pilkhana during the 2009 BDR mutiny in February 25-26, 2009, less than two months after the December 29, 2008 national election through which the Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League came to power.
On February 23 this year, just two days before the BDR mutiny day, the interim government that was formed after the fall of the Sheikh Hasina regime on August 5, 2024 declared February 25 as ‘Jatiya Shaheed Sena Dibash’ and formed a commission to probe into the massacre.
