Special court reads out charges against 143 more accused

The Special Court-5 trying BDR mutiny at the Pilkhana headquarters read out yesterday charges against 143 more accused personnel from 24 Rifles Battalion.
This raised to 183 the number of accused from this battalion against whom charges were read out in last two days.
The total number of accused from the battalion was initially 668, but one was exempted later as he died.
All the accused were produced before the court.
The Special Court-5 headed by BDR Director General Maj Gen Md Rafiqul Islam resumed hearing at Darbar Hall around 11:00am and continued it till 3:00pm.
The court adjourned the hearing till 10:00am today.
The Special Court-5 is one of the six courts formed after the bloody mutiny at Pilkhana that left 74 people including 57 army officials dead.
BDR's Dhaka sector commander Col Aziz Ahmed told journalists after yesterday's hearing that attempts were made also in 1991 to stage a mutiny in Dhaka and Naogaon, and officers were given death threats. Some of the rebels involved in the attempted mutiny also led the 2009 mutiny.
He however did not name them for the sake of on-going investigations.
"I think if the soldiers involved in the attempted rebellion in 1991 were brought to book, the 2009 mutiny would not have taken place, and the loopholes of the BDR law would have surfaced and got corrected earlier," Col Aziz said.
Mentioning that punishment for any member of a disciplined force for such offence is death sentence, he said they have proposed death penalty for the accused in BDR mutiny.

CABINET OKAYS BDR ACT

The cabinet yesterday approved Bangladesh Rifles (Amendments) Act 2010 aimed at facilitating the ongoing trial of BDR mutiny.
The amendments provide that a BDR officer not below director level will head a court conducting trial of the mutiny.
Previously, the BDR director general had to head the BDR courts formed for the trial.
Prime Mminister's Press Secretary Abul Kalam Azad told journalists about approval of the amendments after a regular cabinet meeting at the Secretariat with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.
Earlier, the cabinet approved in principle the Border Guard Bangladesh bill 2010. The cabinet will give its final approval later, and then the bill will be placed in parliament for enactment.