HRDB demands real culprits of BDR massacre to be brought to justice

NEW YORK, Feb. 28, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Speakers at a seminar in New York urged upon the Bangladesh government to bring the real culprits behind the massacre of 57 army officials in February 25, 2009 at BDR headquarters in Dhaka to justice. They also demanded for announcement of February 25 as a `National Day'.

The demand was made at the seminar organized by Human Rights Development for Bangladesh (HRDB) held at the Jewish Center in Jackson Heights, New York on February 28 commemorating the mass killing of the army officials in a mutiny by the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR), now the Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB).

With HRDB president Mahtab Uddin Ahmed in the chair the seminar was addressed, among others, by Sadek Hossain Khoka, a former Bangladesh minster and also the ex-mayor of Dhaka City, Salahuddin Ahmed, former wing commander of Bangladesh Air Force, Professor Dr. Abid Bahar, teacher at Dowson College in Montreal and Professor Shamsul Arefin. It was moderated by Mahbubur Rahman, general secretary of HRDB.

Expressing their discontent over the process of trial of the people responsible for the killings, the speakers said, we are yet to know who masterminded the heinous killings. How many more years do we have to wait to see the killers of the Pilkhana carnage punished due to the lengthy nature of the judicial proceedings? Six years after the gruesome incident, families of the 2009 carnage victims are now complaining that in this process the real culprits may evade justice.

Mentionable, on February 25 in 2009, some soldiers of the BDR mutinied at their Pilkhana headquarters, broke into the armory, looted arms and then went on a killing spree for 33 hours. Seventy-four people, including 57 army officers, were massacred. The mutineers also looted their officers' houses, violated women and children and took them hostage.

The special court awarded death penalty to 152 people and different terms of imprisonment to 423 people in the carnage case. Almost all of them were BDR soldiers.

The speakers further said, our pain will heal only when the killers will be executed. We want the real mastermind behind the killings to face justice.

Contact: Nakib Rahman
[email protected]
347-414-6658

SOURCE Human Rights and Development for Bangladesh

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