Survivors and families of the victims of February 25–26, 2009 rebellion in the erstwhile Bangladesh Rifles on Wednesday at a press conference in Dhaka said that it would be unjust if all imprisoned and death row convicts were released on a wholesale basis as all BDR soldiers were not innocent.
They said that they were not against the bail of BDRÂ members but imprisoned and death row convicts should not be escaped.
‘We are not against the bail of BDR members as it is a judicial matter. It, however, would be unjust, if all BDR members, including death row convicts and imprisoned ones released on a wholesale basis,’ said slain Colonel Quadrat Elahi Rahman Shafique’s son, Saquib Rahman, at the press conference held at Retired Armed Forces Officers Welfare Association Club in Dhaka.
He said that it was a matter of great grief that leaders of Students Against Discrimination also raised their voice to release all BDR members as none but Subedar Major Nurul Islam protested at the carnage among four to five thousand BDR members.
He also said that a narrative was trying to set that Sheikh Hasina and India had conducted the BDR killings.
‘India could plot it and Sheikh Hasina could order it, but the soldiers executed the plan,’ Saquib said.
On December 24, 2024, the interim government formed a seven-member commission to re-investigate the 2009 BDR carnage that left 75 people killed, including 57 army officials amid an outcry from the victim families and political pressure.
On January 23, a total of 178 former members of the then Bangladesh Rifles were released from different jails, four days after they were granted bail in an explosive case linked to the 2009 BDR mutiny.
The release of the former BDR members occurred five and a half months after the fall of the Awami League regime on August 5, 2024.
While reading out a written statement at the press briefing, slain Lieutenant Colonel Lutfar Rahman Khan’s daughter Fabliha Bushra, said that BDR soldiers brutally killed 57 BDR officers or Army officers, deformed bodies, buried them in a mass grave and vandalising, looting and setting fire to houses.
‘BDR soldiers had also kept women and children in the quarter guard room for 36 hours and tortured them,’ she added.
She said that about five thousand BDR soldiers looted four thousand arms from Pilkhana on that day.
‘It has been proved beyond doubt that BDR soldiers were directly involved in the killings that took place on February 25 and 26, 2009,’ she said.
Nehreen Ferdousi, wife of late Colonel Md Mojibul Haque, survivors Lieutenant Colonel Salam, Lieutenant Colonel Riaz and Subedar Major Nurul Islam’s son Ashraful Hannan also described the atrocities of BDR soldiers during the carnage.
