The members of erstwhile Bangladesh Rifles, who were dismissed and imprisoned after the 2009 BDR massacre, on Sunday announced that they would hold a sit-in programme in front of chief adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus’s official residence Jamuna in the capital today.
They said that they would hold the demonstration if their two demands – reinstatement of their jobs or adequate compensation for losing jobs, and securing bail for the members convicted through false testimonies – were not met by Monday morning.
They made the announcement from their indefinite sit-in programme that began at the Central Shaheed Minar on the Dhaka University campus at 11:00am on Sunday. They are staging the demonstration under the banner of ‘Victim BDR in 64 Districts’, a platform of the erstwhile BDR members.
‘We will hold a peaceful sit-in in front of Jamuna if our demands are not met by 11:00am on Monday,’ the platform general secretary Sayed Ahmed Khan said at the Central Shaheed Minar.
Over 100 dismissed BDR members and their families began the sit-in and vowed to continue it until their demands were met.
They were holding the protests days before the scheduled bail hearing in the case related to BDR carnage on April 10.
On the other hand, over 200 sacked BDR members and their families began a demonstration in the capital’s Jigatola area, also near the Border Guard Bangladesh headquarters, at about 10:00am on Sunday to press home the demands.
A five-member representative of the protesters submitted a memorandum to the BGB director general, which was received by a BGB official at the gate.
Later, they protested for hours to get assurance from the BGB director general.
The demonstration continued until 4:00pm, the protesters said.
A huge number of police personnel, members of the Bangladesh Army, and the BGB were deployed in the area to avoid any untoward situation.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s Ramna Division deputy commissioner urged the protesters to hold a peaceful demonstration and leave the place as it was an important point.
At least 74 people, including 57 army officers, were killed in the then Bangladesh Rifles headquarters in the capital’s Pilkhana during the 2009 BDR mutiny.
The BDR mutiny was held 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.
Professor Muhammad Yunus-led interim government was formed on August 8, 2024 following the ouster of the Awami League regime amid a student-led mass uprising on August 5, 2024, the day when Sheikh Hasina fled to India.
On February 23 this year, just two days before the BDR mutiny day, the interim government declared February 25 ‘Jatiya Shaheed Sena Dibash’ and formed a commission to probe into the massacre.