11th anniv of BDR carnage
Tributes paid to martyrs
Family members of Peelkhana carnage victims placing floral wreaths at the graves at the Banani graveyard on Tuesday.
Staff Reporter :
The nation on Tuesday recalled the horrendous carnage at Pilkhana Bangladesh Rifles (BDR), later renamed Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), headquarters in the capital where 74 people were killed in 2009.
The countrymen observed the 11th anniversary of the dreadful BDR carnage as Martyrs’ Day with due solemnity, tearful love, tribute and commemoration to the martyrs.
The relatives of the martyrs, government high-ups and BGB and Army personnel have paid tributes to the martyrs by placing wreaths at their graves at Banani graveyard in the city.
Marking the day, the BGB arranged Quran Khwani, Milad Mahfil and special prayers at all regions, sectors, institutions, and units, including the Pilkhana headquarters.
The representatives of President M Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina placed floral wreaths at the Banani military graveyard around 9:00am on behalf of them.
They, later, gave a state salute and stood there in silence for a minute to show respect to the martyrs.
Later, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan, the chiefs of the three services, senior secretary to the Home Ministry and the BGB Director General placed wreaths at the graves in the morning.
Different social and political organizations, including Awami League, also held programmes, marking the 11th anniversary of the Pilkhana tragedy.
Meanwhile, BGB Director General (DG) Md Shafeenul Islam said the border force is now alert to thwart any incident like the 2009 BDR mutiny, which killed 74 people, including 57 deputed army officers.
“Every officer and soldier has been working to this end so that an incident like that [2009 BDR mutiny] never takes place in future,” he said while talking to reporters after paying homage to those who were killed in the mutiny, at the Military Graveyard in Dhaka’s Banani on Tuesday. When asked over the allegations of failure of intelligence services to predict such mutiny, he said: “BGB has its own intelligence network. The network has been reformed and its activities have spread even to the district level.”
“If there were any lacking in this regard in the past, we have tried to overcome the shortcomings through reforms.”
“The border force has turned around successfully by taking lessons from the incident,” he added.
On February 25 in 2009, BDR men rose up in armed revolt at Darbar Hall during the three-day ‘BDR Week’ inside the Pilkhana headquarters and killed 74 people, including 57 deputed army officers.
The mutiny finally ended the next day (February 26) with the surrender of the firearms and grenades after negotiation between the government and the BDR rebels.
After the mutiny, BDR was renamed Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) and 58 cases were filed — one for serious crimes, including murder, looting, and the rest for mutiny.
Some 152 people were sentenced to death and 423 others to different jail terms and 271 others acquitted in the country’s largest-ever killing case.
Among the convicts, 161 people, including Dhaka city BNP leader and former MP Nasiruddin Ahmed Pintu and local Awami League leader Torab Ali, were sentenced to life term imprisonment while 262 others to different jail terms starting from three months.
On the other hand, a total of 5,926 BDR personnel were sentenced to different jail terms ranging from four months to seven years in the 57 mutiny cases.
After an investigation that took around 16 months the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) found that the mutiny was staged based on some unexpressed resentment among BDR soldiers regarding some of their demands.
CID’s Abdul Kahar Akand, the investigation officer of the case, in his post-investigation briefing said that the investigation could not find any political or foreign link to the blood-spattered mutiny. The judge also pointed out that there might have been security, diplomatic, economic, political and social motives behind the massacre in Pilkhana.
The nation on Tuesday recalled the horrendous carnage at Pilkhana Bangladesh Rifles (BDR), later renamed Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), headquarters in the capital where 74 people were killed in 2009.
The countrymen observed the 11th anniversary of the dreadful BDR carnage as Martyrs’ Day with due solemnity, tearful love, tribute and commemoration to the martyrs.
The relatives of the martyrs, government high-ups and BGB and Army personnel have paid tributes to the martyrs by placing wreaths at their graves at Banani graveyard in the city.
Marking the day, the BGB arranged Quran Khwani, Milad Mahfil and special prayers at all regions, sectors, institutions, and units, including the Pilkhana headquarters.
The representatives of President M Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina placed floral wreaths at the Banani military graveyard around 9:00am on behalf of them.
They, later, gave a state salute and stood there in silence for a minute to show respect to the martyrs.
Later, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan, the chiefs of the three services, senior secretary to the Home Ministry and the BGB Director General placed wreaths at the graves in the morning.
Different social and political organizations, including Awami League, also held programmes, marking the 11th anniversary of the Pilkhana tragedy.
Meanwhile, BGB Director General (DG) Md Shafeenul Islam said the border force is now alert to thwart any incident like the 2009 BDR mutiny, which killed 74 people, including 57 deputed army officers.
“Every officer and soldier has been working to this end so that an incident like that [2009 BDR mutiny] never takes place in future,” he said while talking to reporters after paying homage to those who were killed in the mutiny, at the Military Graveyard in Dhaka’s Banani on Tuesday. When asked over the allegations of failure of intelligence services to predict such mutiny, he said: “BGB has its own intelligence network. The network has been reformed and its activities have spread even to the district level.”
“If there were any lacking in this regard in the past, we have tried to overcome the shortcomings through reforms.”
“The border force has turned around successfully by taking lessons from the incident,” he added.
On February 25 in 2009, BDR men rose up in armed revolt at Darbar Hall during the three-day ‘BDR Week’ inside the Pilkhana headquarters and killed 74 people, including 57 deputed army officers.
The mutiny finally ended the next day (February 26) with the surrender of the firearms and grenades after negotiation between the government and the BDR rebels.
After the mutiny, BDR was renamed Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) and 58 cases were filed — one for serious crimes, including murder, looting, and the rest for mutiny.
Some 152 people were sentenced to death and 423 others to different jail terms and 271 others acquitted in the country’s largest-ever killing case.
Among the convicts, 161 people, including Dhaka city BNP leader and former MP Nasiruddin Ahmed Pintu and local Awami League leader Torab Ali, were sentenced to life term imprisonment while 262 others to different jail terms starting from three months.
On the other hand, a total of 5,926 BDR personnel were sentenced to different jail terms ranging from four months to seven years in the 57 mutiny cases.
After an investigation that took around 16 months the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) found that the mutiny was staged based on some unexpressed resentment among BDR soldiers regarding some of their demands.
CID’s Abdul Kahar Akand, the investigation officer of the case, in his post-investigation briefing said that the investigation could not find any political or foreign link to the blood-spattered mutiny. The judge also pointed out that there might have been security, diplomatic, economic, political and social motives behind the massacre in Pilkhana.
