DHAKA: BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Tuesday (Feb 25) said they will take steps for a fresh trial of the 2009 Pilkhana BDR carnage through fair investigation, if the party goes to power.
He said: “Convicts in the BDR-carnage case alleged that the trial was not fair. The full report on the investigation carried out by the Army into the incident was not published. We also think the trial was not fair.”
“We will take steps for a fair trial of the incident though a neutral investigation if we return to power,” the BNP leader said.
Fakhrul made remarks while taking to reporters after placing wreaths at the monument set up at Banani Graveyard in memory of army official killed in the Pilkhana carnage, marking the 11th anniversary of the barbaric incident.
Terming the BDR carnage as conspiratorial one, Fakhrul said the incident was carried out to demoralise the Bangladesh Army, the symbol of the country’s independence and sovereignty.
“Our independence is now at stake …there’s no democracy in the country. Khaleda Zia, an uncompromised leader of democracy, has been kept in jail unfairly,” he alleged.
Fakhrul along with other party leaders went to the Banani Graveyard around 10:45 am and paid homage to the army officials killed in the BDR carnage.
They also offered a munajat seeking eternal peace of the departed souls of the slain army officials.
Kalyan Party Chairman Maj Gen (retd) Syed Muhammad Ibrahim, BNP vice chairmen Maj (retd) Hafizuddin Ahmed and Air Vice Marshal (retd) Altaf Hossain Chowdhury, Maj Gen (retd) Ruhul Alam Chowdhury, retired army officers Fazle Elahi Akbar, Mizanur Rahman, M Shahjahan and Sarwar Hossain were, among others, present.
The nation is observing the 11th anniversary of Peelkhana BDR carnage today (Feb 25) with a heavy heart.
On this day of 2009, several hundred members of the then Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) rose up in armed revolt at Darbar Hall during three-day ‘BDR Week’ inside Pilkhana Headquarters and killed 74 people, including 57 army officers.
The carnage finally ended on the following day (February 26) with surrender of BDR rebels along with firearms, ammunition and grenades through negotiations between them and the government.
After the mutiny, the paramilitary force was renamed as Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB).
On completion of trial on November 5 in 2013, a Dhaka court awarded death sentence to 150 BDR members and two civilians, and life imprisonment to 160 others in the case.
On November 27, 2017, the HC confirmed death penalty for 139 out of the 152 convicts. Earlier, capital punishment was pronounced by a lower court for their involvement in the killings during the incident.
BDST: 1624 HRS, FEB 25, 2020
SMS
