Families of the victims of the February 25–26, 2009 rebellion in the erstwhile Bangladesh Rifles and sacked BDR members on Saturday demanded a commission to ensure punishment for actual perpetrators.
They called on the interim government to reinstate jobs of over 18,000 BDR members, claiming that they were not the actual perpetrators.
‘Our demand is to ensure punishment for the actual perpetrators and more than 18,000 sacked BDR members are not the guilty,’ said Rakin Ahmed, son of slain former BDR director general Major General Shakil Ahmed.
He was addressing as the chief guest at a discussion organised by BDR Kallyan Parishad in the city.
He said that the government had to form a commission immediately.
Urging people from all walks of life to stand beside students and people who fought in the July-August mass uprising, he said, ‘Neighboring country and different intelligence agencies are hatching conspiracies.’
He said that the autocrat’s collaborators were still in many government offices.
Rakin also mentioned that many of the 18,000 sacked BDR families were facing financial hardships. He urged the government to look into the issue.
Chairing the discussion, BDR Kallyan Parishad president Md Foyzul Haque said that BDR rebellion was a planned one by ousted Awami League government.
‘We urge the interim government to reinstate jobs of the sacked BDR members as they are not the perpetrators,’ he said.
He also demanded ensuring justice.
On February 25, 2009, several hundred Bangladesh Rifles soldiers took arms against their officers deputed from the army at Durbar Hall during their annual gathering at the paramilitary force’s headquarters in Dhaka, leaving 75 people —57 army officers, 2 wives of army officers, 9 BDR soldiers, 5 civilians, an army soldier, and a police constable — killed.
Border guard special courts sentenced 5,926 soldiers to jail for varying terms on mutiny charges in 57 cases, including 11 in Dhaka, while two criminal cases — one filed for the murders and the other filed under the Explosive Substances Act.
Two major cases — murder case and explosives case — for the BDR rebellion were investigated jointly by the Criminal Investigation Department, and the trial started in 2011 against 850 riflemen and civilians.
On November 5, 2013, a Dhaka sessions court pronounced the verdict in the murder case, sentencing 151 soldiers and civilian Zakir Hossain to death and jailing 160 soldiers, late Bangladesh Nationalist Party leader Nasiruddin Pintu and local Awami League leader and retired BDR subedar Md Torab Ali, for life term, and 256 others for varying terms.
It acquitted 278 people. Four others died before the verdict.
In November 2017, the special High Court bench of Justice Md Shawkat Hossain, Justice Md Abu Zafor Siddique and Justice Md Nazrul Islam Talukder upheld the death sentences of 139 soldiers.
Now the murder case is pending with the Appellate Division and the case under the Explosive Substance Act is pending with the trial court.
