Julfikar Ali Manik
Twenty-seven among 675 accused of the 44 Rifle Battalion were in particular focus as they were hauled before the BDR Special Court-5 yesterday in shackles and civvies.
The rest were handcuffed and in uniform in the dock at the Darbar Hall of Bangladesh Rifles headquarters in Pilkhana where the bloody mutiny broke out on February 25 last year.
This was the first incident of producing the accused in fetters before the BDR court set up to hold trial for mutiny charges. Of the 27, sepoy Salim Reza drew special attention as he played a leading role during the carnage.
Everyone's focus was trained on Salim on the first day of the trial on Monday when the complainant and prosecutor of the case narrated his leading role.
Salim, a bearded young man without mustache, was wearing a round white cap usually used in prayers, maroon fatua and lungi. Like him the twenty-six others were in civil dresses wearing either shirt or T-shirt and lungi or pants. Some of them also started to keep beard since their imprisonment last year.
BDR Director General Maj Gen M Mainul Islam, who is the president of the three-member court, ordered during Monday's proceedings to bring them in civil dresses and fetters.
Salim, who ordered slain BDR DG Shakil Ahmed and other officers to go out from the Darbar Hall on February 25 saying "go one by one" before they were shot to death, was eager to speak to journalists yesterday.
While entering Darbar Hall, he repeatedly told the newspersons, "I committed the mutiny, I am a mutineer. But it should not so happen that we are tried by the victims [army officers]; I want trial in the civil court."
He was wearing an angry expression in the face and was trying to make the same allegations against the slain army officers regarding the "Dal Bhat" project.
He was also claiming he himself did not kill any officer during the mutiny.
But the court of inquiry of the paramilitary force suspects these 27 were involved not only in the mutiny but also in murders and other grievous offences.
However, they will be tried in the civil court for committing murders and other grievous offences.
But as they are also accused in the case for mutiny, they are being tried by the BDR courts. The Special Court-5 asked the jail authorities to send the 27 in fetters to ensure security of the court.
Lt Col Kazi Aniruddha, prosecutor of the mutiny case, told The Daily Star, "The 27 were produced in fetters as per our requirement. We wanted this to ensure security of the court apprehending that they might try to be unruly again in the same place [Darbar Hall] where they started the mutiny.
"According to the information of the court of inquiry, we have evidence that the twenty-seven committed grievous offences during the two-day mutiny," said prosecutor Aniruddha.
The prosecutor in his yesterday's submission briefly described the specific charges of mutiny against the accused.
He said Salim Reza in the morning of February 25 divided his followers into two groups who looted the arsenal.
After taking arms from the arsenal, sepoys Moin of 13 Battalion and Kajal Ali of 44 Battalion went to Darbar Hall at 9:25am to trigger the mutiny.
Armed sepoys Salim, Kajal, Altaf and others soon took control of Darbar Hall and its surrounding areas, Aniruddha added.
Sepoys Salim, Kajal, Habibur Rahman, Jasim Mallik, Rafiqul Islam and Obaidul broke into slain DG Shakil Ahmed's residence where DG's wife and other members were living.
The sepoys committed heinous offences at the DG's house including committing torture, ransacking, looting and arson.
After the prosecutor's submission the court fixed November 1 for hearing on charge framing. Two other members of the court are Lt Col Golam Rabbani and Maj Sayed Hasan Taposh.
The court asked all the accused to appear in the next day's proceedings at 10:00am in the same get-up they had during the mutiny.
The Daily Star - Link