Thakurgaon BDR mutiny verdict today

A special court of Bangladesh Rifles today delivers the verdict of a mutiny case against 51 BDR men of 20 Rifle Battalion in Thakurgaon.
After the defence and the prosecution completed their arguments around 2:30pm yesterday, the Special Court-2 set today for the judgment. The court was adjourned after about the six-hour long proceedings started at 8:30am.
The trial of the case began on February 3.
All the accused placed their written and verbal arguments before the three-member court headed by BDR Director General Maj Gen M Mainul Islam. Two other members are Lt Colonel Mahfuzur Rahaman and Major Didar Al Latif.
Charges were brought against the accused for their alleged involvement in the mutiny during the BDR carnage at Pilkhana headquarters on February 25-26 last year.
Sipoy Pappu Mondal, one of the accused, broke into tears when he was submitting his statement yesterday.
At one point, he began ranting: "We're victims of an unwanted situation. We just followed the superiors' orders", and pleaded with the court not to send them to jail.
For seven of the accused, it had only been seven days since their joining as sepoys when they were embroiled in the mutiny.
When asked by president of the court Maj Gen Mainul as to why they joined the mutiny, the sepoys said Nayeb Subeder Shadidullah Biswas forced them to join.
The president of the court condemned Subedar Shahidullah's action.
The prosecutor and Commanding Officer of 20 Rifle Battalion Lt Colonel Mahfuz Alom placed allegations against each accused before the court.
Public prosecutors Mosharaf Hossain Kajol and Monjurul Alam assisted him.
Deputy Attorney General Biswajit Roy was present as the representative of the attorney general's office.
Earlier, 44 of 51 accused admitted to their involvement in the mutiny before the court.
A total of 31 witnesses out of 84 made depositions in the court until yesterday.