Dhaka, Nov 21 (bdnews24.com) – Prime minister Sheikh Hasina promised a fast-track BDR mutiny trial, addressing a special programme in Dhaka Cantonment to mark Armed Forces Day on Saturday.
Hasina also exchanged rare pleasantries with BNP chief and leader of the opposition Khaleda Zia, among others on the occasion.
Top brass, army chief Gen Md Abdul Mubeen, navy chief Zahir Uddin Ahmed and air chief Shah Md Ziaur Rahman, headed their forces at the programme.
Hasina told them, "I promise, as long as I live, I will see the BDR mutiny trial completed."
Over 70 people were killed in February's bloody mutiny at the BDR's Peelkhana headquarters, 57 of them army officers deputed to the border force, including the force's chief Gen Shakil Ahmed.
The trial is set to start any day, with the government forming six special courts on Nov 15 to try some 3,500 border guards accused of mutiny, in the shortest possible time.
Bangladesh, however, has a poor track record of resolving major cases.
The Supreme Court, earlier in the week, gave a final judgment in the Bangabandhu murder case more than 34 years after the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and most of his family on Aug 15 1975.
Regarding the verdict, which upheld death sentences for her father's killers, Hasina said, "No one who commits a crime can be exempt from punishment."
"Justice and truth won in this verdict," she added.
Hasina vowed all such pending cases would be tried successively by her government, including the 1975 Jail Killings of four national leaders, the murders of former finance minister Shah AMS Kibria and Awami League MP Ahsanullah Mastar and the Aug 21 2004 grenade attack on an AL rally.
The prime minister also said her government is eager to continue its efforts to modernise the armed forces and assured the assembled top brass of increased facilities for their troops.
She said she had asked the United Nations, at the recent UN General Assembly in September, to take more peace-keeping troops from Bangladesh.
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