40 ex-BDR soldiers released

Staff Reporter :

Forty former members of the erstwhile Bangladesh Rifles (BDR), who were granted bail in the explosives case related to the Pilkhana carnage, have been released from prison.
DIG Prisons of Dhaka Division Md. Jahangir Kabir confirmed it to the media on Wednesday. They were released from Dhaka Central Jail in Keraniganj and from different units of Kashimpur Jail, he said.

Earlier, on May 8, Judge Ibrahim Mia of Dhaka Special Tribunal-2 granted them bail. Four days later, on May 12, the Chief Prosecutor of the concerned court, Borhan Uddin, confirmed the bail order.

DIG Prisons Md Jahangir Kabir stated that the bail orders for 40 former BDR members were received at Dhaka Central Jail. Among them, 13 were released from Dhaka Central Jail, five from Kashimpur Central Jail-1, 10 from Kashimpur Central Jail-2, and 12 from Kashimpur High-Security Central Jail – making a total of 40 released prisoners.

He further said that upon receiving their bail documents, the prison authorities verified the papers and released the inmates.

Earlier, on January 23, a total of 168 inmates were released – 41 from Dhaka Central Jail, 26 from Kashimpur-1, 89 from Kashimpur-2, and 12 from Kashimpur High-Security Jail.
The carnage occurred on February 25-26, 2009, when a mutiny broke out at the BDR headquarters in Pilkhana, Dhaka, resulting in the killing of 74 people, including 57 army officers.
Two cases were filed in connection with the incident-one for murder and another under the Explosive Substances Act.