14th anniversary of Pilkhana carnage on Saturday

The 14th anniversary of the atrocious carnage at the Pilkhana BDR (now BGB) headquarters in the capital will be observed on Saturday.

A total of 74 people, including 57 army officers, were killed in the carnage beginning on this day in 2009.

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Marking the day, Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) will organize Quran Khawani, doa, and milad mahfil, said a BGB press release.

Floral wreaths will be placed at the graves of the slain army officers at the Military Graveyard in the capital's Banani at around 9 am by the representatives of President Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

To mark the day, all Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) installations will have the BGB flag at half-mast and all BGB members will wear black badges.

Besides, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan, chiefs of the three services -- Chief of Army Staff General SM Shafiuddin Ahmed, Chief of Naval Staff Admiral M Shaheen Iqbal and Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Shaikh Abdul Hannan -- Director General of BGB Major General Md Shafeenul Islam and the family members of the slain officers will also pay their tributes to the slain Army officers.

On February 25, 2009, several hundred Bangladesh Rifles (now BGB) men rose up in an armed revolt at the Darbar Hall of the force's Pilkhana headquarters during the three-day "BDR Week". They killed 74 people, including 57 army officers.

The mutiny finally ended the following day (Feb 26) with the surrender of firearms, ammunition and grenades through a negotiation between the then government and the BDR rebels.

A total of 58 cases including one for murder and looting and the rest for mutiny were filed in connection with the incident.

Some 152 people were sentenced to death and 423 others to different jail terms in the killing case. Besides, 277 accused were acquitted in the country’s largest-ever killing case.

Among the convicts, 262 mutineers were sentenced to different jail terms starting from three months to 19 years and 161 people, including late BNP leader Nasiruddin Ahmed Pintu and local Awami League leader Torab Ali, were sentenced to life imprisonment.

On the other hand, 5,926 BDR personnel were sentenced to different jail terms ranging from four months to seven years in the 57 mutiny cases.