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Families of the victims of the February 25–26, 2009 rebellion in the erstwhile Bangladesh Rifles demanded to the interim government a fresh inquiry into the killing of 75 people, including 57 army officials, to unearth the plot and plotters behind the carnage. 

They also demanded public release of the findings, including the progress of the inquiries already carried out by the Bangladesh Army and home ministry, for collecting proper evidence and prosecuting the perpetrators of the massacre at the headquarters of the border forces, later renamed as Border Guard Bangladesh.

Rakin Ahmed, son of slain former BDR director general Major General Shakil Ahmed and Naznin Ahmed, both of whom were murdered during the carnage, told ¶¶Òõ¾«Æ· on Thursday that they appealed for fresh inquiries by the interim government to collect evidence.

In the aftermath of the massacre, the home ministry and Bangladesh Army launched separate inquiries, and now retired Lieutenant General Jahangir Alam Chowdhury, currently the home affairs adviser to the Professor Muhammad Yunus-led interim government, headed the army inquiry.

‘We know that the incumbent home affairs adviser Jahangir Alam was under pressure during the inquiry when the Awami League was in power. We demand a restart of the inquiry for collecting evidence and making it public,’ said Rakin.

On August 16, 2024, families had sent a statement to law adviser Asif Nazrul and home adviser Jahangir Alam  Chowdhury, slain Colonel Quadrat Elahi Rahman Shafique’s son, Saquib Rahman confirmed the matter to ¶¶Òõ¾«Æ·. 

‘We are the family members of the Bangladesh Army officers martyred in the BDR Pilkhana killings (Shaheed Families) on 25–26 February 2009. We, who are left behind, the martyrs’ mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters, spouses, sons and daughters, have endured profound despair for 15 years. Today we call upon the interim government to uphold our right to the truth and to justice, by taking the following measures,’ the statement read.

The statement called upon the interim government to take up eight measures.

Their first demand is to publicly release the reports of all investigations carried out into the tragedy, including those held by the home ministry and army. 

Their second demand is setting up of an inquiry commission in the public interest following the High Court recommendations in its 2017 judgment (published in 2020) relating to the BDR Pilkhana killings to unearth the facts behind the carnage.

The victim families’ third demand is more institutional measures to commemorate the BDR tragedy—publishing a gazette declaring February 25 as ‘Shaheed Shena Dibash’; acknowledge each fallen officer as a ‘Shaheed’ or martyr; keeping the national flag at half-mast on every February 25; and include a chapter in school textbooks on the BDR Pilkhana tragedy recognising the sacrifices of the people martyred there.

They also demanded in the statement the release of the innocent ‘Jawans’ (former BDR soldiers) who have been wrongly detained in the cases relating to the 2009 rebellion.

Bangladesh Army officers who lost their jobs for rightfully voicing their opinions for proper justice must be reinstated or duly compensated, the statement added.

Slain Colonel Quadrat Elahi Rahman Shafique’s son, Saquib Rahman said that they demanded that justice must prevail and no innocent people get punished.

Neither law adviser Asif Nazrul nor home adviser Jahangir responded to phone calls and messages for comments. 

Justice into the killings of 75 people, mostly army officers deputed in the erstwhile Bangladesh Rifles, has not been delivered even after about 16 years have passed after the carnage, while many former soldiers and civilians have been languishing in jail for years and dozens have died pending trials.

Those who were acquitted by a trial court in November 2013 of the murder charge have been in jail as another case related to explosive substances is still pending with the trial court.

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, two wives of army officers, nine BDR soldiers, five civilians, an army soldier, and a police constable—killed.

Border guard special courts sentenced 5,926 soldiers to 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—are still pending with the court.

The two major cases were investigated by the Criminal Investigation Department, and simultaneous trials started in 2011 against 850 riflemen and civilians.

In the middle of the trials, meanwhile, the court continued the trial of the case filed for murder and other offences, while slowing down the proceedings in the explosives case.

On November 5, 2013, additional sessions judge Akhtaruzzaman, who was later elevated to the High Court as a justice, pronounced the verdict in the murder case, sentencing 151 soldiers and civilian Zakir Hossain to death.

The court also jailed 160 soldiers, including late Bangladesh Nationalist Party leader Nasiruddin Pintu and local Awami League leader and retired Bangladesh Rifles subedar Md Torab Ali who were handed life sentences, and 256 others for varying terms.

It acquitted 278 people. Four others died before the verdict.

Nehreen Ferdousi, wife of late colonel Md Mojibul Haque said that she did not believe that soldiers could do such massacre.

‘We demand that the masterminds are found out and brought to justice,’ Nehreen told ¶¶Òõ¾«Æ·.

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. It commuted the death sentences of seven soldiers and Md Zakir Hossain, then a local Awami League leader, to life in jail.

The court acquitted four soldiers of the charges, and BDR deputy assistant director Habibur Rahman died in jail custody in February 2014 while his appeal against the death sentence was pending with the High Court.

The High Court upheld the life terms of 146 BDR personnel and acquitted 12 others of their life terms. Two others died during the pendency of their appeals.

Both the government inquiry committee, headed by former secretary Anis-uz-Zaman Khan, and an investigation conducted by the army failed to identify the plot and the plotters. The report by Anis-uz-Zaman recommended an investigation into the failure to gather intelligence about the planned mutiny. The army did not make the results of its investigation public.

New York-based rights group Human Rights Watch said that it had obtained the report and stated that the report faulted the government for not having taken a stronger line against the Bangladesh Rifles before the rebellion.

The right group also urged the government to establish an independent investigative and prosecutorial task force with sufficient expertise, authority, and resources to rigorously investigate and, where appropriate, prosecute all allegations of unlawful deaths, torture and mistreatment of suspects in the BDR mutiny, regardless of the perpetrator’s rank or institutional affiliation.