Dhaka, Feb 23 (UNB)-A special court trying the BDR mutineers in Dhaka took into cognizance the offence put forward by the prosecution on the opening day and ordered producing the 84 detained mutineers when the hearings resume at 10:00 am tomorrow (Wednesday).

The Special Court-5 set up at the Durbar Hall of the Pilkhana headquarters of the border force, where a massacre of its top orders took place on February 25-26 last year, opened trial about 12:05 pm today (Tuesday), two days ahead of the first anniversary of the carnage. The special court-5, formed under the Bangladesh Rifles Order 1972, is trying the BDR members of Dhaka Sector headquarters who allegedly took part in the mutiny inside the BDR headquarters. Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) Director-General Maj General Mainul Islam presided over the three-member special trial court-5 that sat at 12:05 PM. Two other members were Lt Col AKM Gulam Rabbi and Maj Sayeed Hasan Taposh.

Deputy Attorney-General Mohammad Ullah Kislu, a representative nominated by the Attorney-General, assisted the court in the much-orchestrated mutiny trial as per law of the border force.

Special Public Prosecutors Advocate Mosharraf Hossain Kajal, Manzur Ahmed and Shahnewaj Tipu were also present during the trial.

Court sources said complainant acting Subedar Major
Shah Alam Bhuiyan placed allegation against 85 BDR members of Dhaka Sector headquarters before the court. Of them, 19 have been detained in jail, 64 kept in barracks, one under treatment and two remained absconding.

Assigned prosecutor Major Motiur Rahman burst into tears while narrating in detail the horrendous Pilkhana massacre before the court and prayed for “highest punishment against the mutineers”.

Major Motiur said over 2,500 BDR members, including the 40 accused, were present at the Durbar Hall on the morning of February 25 last year when the reign of terror was unleashed.

“When the then Director-General of BDR, Maj General Shakil, was describing the BDR-run dal-bhat recipe as a successful programme, sepahi Moeen entered the Durbar Hall with firearms and targeted the DG at about 9:30 am,” the army officer said in his eyewitness account of the attack.

Then Additional DG Brig Gen Bari and other senior officers disarmed sepoy Moeen. He asked all to ‘calm down and stay inside the Durbar Hall’.

Earlier at about 8:15 am, 30 to 35 mutineers gathered at Sadar Battalion Sainik mess and split into two groups. “One group went to loot firearms while other to loot ammunition,” the prosecutor informed the court.

He said one mutineer went to guard room no. 5 at about 9:25 am and brought out a number of firearms to the Durbar Hall and distributed the weapons to other rebels.

“Had the jawans not gone out disobeying the DG’s orders, the massacre would not have occurred,” Maj Motiur observed.

He said the mutineers killed 15 to 20 army officers, including the DG, while others were killed outside the Durbar Hall.

“We have enough evidences on record to prove their heinous act,” he told the court.

After hearing the prosecution, court passed a number of directives to the prosecutor.

The directives include: show the 19 detained mutineers arrested, send the 64 mutineers to jail after taking them under custody from barracks, take under custody the jawan who is undergoing treatment and issue arrest warrant against the two jawans who are on the run.

The court also ordered the prosecutor to present the 84 mutineers before court by 9:00 am Wednesday.

Earlier, last year, the government set up six special courts to hold trial of the accused mutineers -- two courts in Dhaka and four outside the capital.

On Feb 25-26, BDR personnel staged the mutiny at the BDR Headquarters at Pilkhana over low pay and poor condition, and the uprising sparked off mutinous demonstrations in other establishments of the paramilitary border force across the country. At least 73 people, including 57 army officers deputed to the border force, were killed at the BDR headquarters during the carnage