Torn-apart, families wait in whimper for justice

Families of the Pilkhana carnage victims may have to wait for two more years to see the killers punished due to the lengthy nature of the judicial proceedings.

It would take at least that much time before the higher courts concluded the legal procedures to pave way for the execution of verdicts handed down by a special court in November 2013, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam recently told The Daily Star.

Six years after the gruesome incident, families of the 2009 carnage victims said they would wait that long for justice.

THE CARNAGE CASE

In the morning of February 25 in 2009, some soldiers of the then Bangladesh Rifles, now Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), mutinied at their Pilkhana headquarters. They broke into the armoury, 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, tortured women and children and took them hostage. Sepoy Selim Reza, who led the armoury break-in and the first wave of killings, had made this chilling revelation in his confessional statement. Two cases were filed following the mutiny -- one for carnage and another for blast.

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.

Following this, appeals were made to the High Court challenging the verdicts.

A special HC bench of Justice Md Shawkat Hossain, Justice Md Abu Zafor Siddique and Justice Md Nazrul Islam Talukder had already heard the confessional statements of 538 accused and the depositions of 14 prosecution witnesses out of 654 between January 18 and February 24, said Deputy Attorney General KM Zahid Sarwar Kazal.

"The HC may deliver its judgment in six months and then it may take another six months to write and release the full verdict," said Mahbubey Alam.

After that, the next relevant procedures at the Appellate Division and the execution of the convicts might be finished in the next one year, the country's chief law officer said, explaining the details of the legal process.

THE BLAST CASE

Meanwhile, the trial of the blast case in connection with 2009 BDR carnage is still in its initial phase.

The special court set up at the capital's Bakshibazar to try the mutiny cases did not sit for a single day in the last one year.

A total of 834 people, including a civilian, stand accused in the case, filed under the Explosive Substances Act. Most of these people were accused in the carnage case as well.

Though the trial proceedings in both cases started in August 2011, the blast case was put on hold to make way for the carnage case first.

The proceedings of the case resumed only after the carnage case verdict in November 2013.

Explaining the delay, acting chief public prosecutor Mosharraf Hossain Kajol on Monday said under the current circumstances, it was risky to bring the accused, many of whom were convicted killers, to the makeshift court.

He, however, hoped that they would be able to complete the case proceedings by year end.

Apart from the Bakshibazar court trials, 11 BGB special courts awarded 5,926 jawans jail terms ranging from a month to seven years in connection with the mutiny.

THE WAIT GOES ON

"Our pain will heal only when the killers will be executed," Nehreen Ferdousi, widow of slain Col Mujibul Haque told The Daily Star on Monday.

Nehreen, who was ready to wait longer for justice, said she, like the wives of many other army officers massacred in the 2009 carnage, still wanted to know who the "real mastermind" behind the killings was.

She also demanded that the government announce February 25 as "a national day" and install a monument for people to pay tributes to the carnage victims.