BDR carnage: HC seeks govt explanation for not forming body to find real culprits

The High Court today issued a rule asking the authorities concerned of the government to explain why they should not be directed to constitute a committee headed by a retired judge of the Appellate Division to find out the real culprits and masterminds behind the BDR carnage.
The HC bench of Justice Farah Mahbub and Justice Debashish Roy Chowdhury issued the rule following a writ petition filed by two Supreme Court lawyers seeking its directive on the government to constitute a national independent committee to find out the criminals.
The court also ordered the home ministry to dispose of an application filed by the writ petitioners seeking the formation of such a committee in 10 days.
SC lawyers Md Tanvir Ahmed and Biplab Kumar Poddar submitted the petition as a public interest litigation on October 20, also praying to the HC to ask the authorities concerned to declare February 25 as “Shaheed Sena Dibos” as the massacre took place on February 25 and 26 in 2009.
The mutiny at Pilkhana headquarters of the erstwhile Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) on February 25-26, 2009 that killed 74 people including 57 army officials.
In the petition, the two lawyers said that the victims of the BDR mutiny and their families demand a national independent committee to find out the real culprits and masterminds behind the brutal killings.
But the authorities concerned of the government have failed to take any initiative in this regard, they said in the petition.
On November 5, 2013, a Dhaka court handed down death sentences to 150 BDR members and two civilians, and life imprisonment to 160 others for their role and involvement in the carnage. A total of 256 people, mostly BDR soldiers, were handed jail sentences.
The court acquitted 278 others, but the prosecution later appealed against the acquittal of 69.
In January 2015, the HC started hearing the appeals of the convicts and pronounced its verdict on November 27, 2017, confirming the death penalty of 139 persons. It commuted the death penalty of eight convicts to life imprisonment and acquitted five others, who were sentenced to death by the trial court.
The HC upheld life imprisonment of 146 and acquitted 14 of the 160 accused, who were sentenced to life by the lower court. A total of 248 accused out of the 278 got acquittals from the HC.
The execution of the death row convicts now depends on the hearing of appeals by the Appellate Division and its verdict.