DHAHA: A bill on the Border Guard Bangladesh Act-2010 was placed in parliament Monday with the provision of death sentence as maximum punishment for offences in the process of reorganizing the mutiny-redden border force.

Minister for Home Affairs Advocate Shahara Khatun tabled the bill with tougher positions for marinating discipline in the paramilitary border force now renamed Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) instead of Bangladesh Rifles (BDR).

The government took the initiative to reform the border force against the backdrop of a massive mutiny on February 25-26 last year that left almost all its commanders deputed from the army dead in the BDR headquarters.

A total of 73 people, 57 of them army officers in command of the border force, were killed in the headquarters during the mutiny and marauding.

Trial on charges of mutiny and serious crimes like killings and looting BDR arsenal is now underway in special courts under the BDR act and criminal procedure code respectively.
 
In the proposed new law placed in parliament Monday the provisions for punishing crimes have been toughened, awarding sentences ranging from reprimand to capital punishment.  

The proposed law sets 13 sorts of punishment of different forms, including death sentence, life imprisonment, imprisonment to different terms, censure, fines and withholding payments.

It will also empower the additional director-general-level officers to try offenders.

Article 70 of the bill provides for creating three types of Border Guard courts--Special Border Guard Court, Special Summary Border Guard Court and Summary Border Guard Court--for trying offences of different forms.

“The director-general or a regional commander authorized by the director-general will head the Special Border Guard Court, which is authorized to award any punishment mentioned in the bill,” it is stated in the objective of the bill.

An officer of deputy director-general standing will be able to lead the Special Summary Border Guard Court, which is authorized to award up to five years in jail or other light punishments.

The Summary Border Guard Court will be headed at least by an additional director-general and can hand down one year`s jail.

On March 1 this year, the cabinet first discussed the Border Guard Bangladesh Bill-2010 before approving it on July 12, 2010.

Six special courts, including two in the capital, were set up on November last year to try the mutineers. A number of BDR members were sentenced to different terms of imprisonment in Feni, Satkhira, Rangamati, Panchagarh, Thakurgaon and Sunamganj districts for their involvement in the widespread mutiny.

Earlier on September 6, the special-court hearing on charges against the rebel BDR members of 24 Rifles Battalion in the Pilkhana carnage case was adjourned till October 5 after the third day’s proceedings that generated much heat amid war of words.

BDST: 2201 HRS, 20 SEPT 2010