ਬੰਗਲਾਦੇਸ਼ ਵਿਚ 152 ਦੋਸ਼ੀਆਂ ਨੂੰ ਮੋਤ ਦੀ ਸਜਾ ਓਹਨਾ ਤੇ ਦੋਸ਼ ਸੀ ਓਹਨਾ ਨੇ 2009 ਵਿਚ 74 ਲੋਕਾ ਨੂੰ ਮਾਰਿਆ ਸੀ| DHAKA, Bangladesh — In an unprecedented verdict, 152 former members of the Bangladesh Rifles, a paramilitary border security unit, were sentenced to death on Tuesday in connection with a bloody 2009 mutiny in which several thousand troops took control of their headquarters, demanding better working conditions, and killed scores of people. Some of the guards broke down in tears after hearing their sentence, pronounced by Judge Mohammad Akhtaruzzaman in a Dhaka courtroom, and others shouted at the judge, saying the verdict was unfair. “Allah will deliver justice of this injustice,” they said. Judge Akhtaruzzaman said the testimony of some witnesses who described the blood bath was hair-raising. “The slain people were not merely killed,” he said. “The dead bodies did not get the respect they deserve according to the law.” The mutiny began suddenly, at an annual conference of the border force, as a number of guards took their commanders, officers of the Bangladesh Army, hostage. As soldiers massed around the building, the border guards announced a list of demands, among them better pay, permission to participate in United Nations peacekeeping missions, and changes in the force’s command and control structure. The mutiny collapsed 33 hours later, after army tanks surrounded the border guards’ headquarters in the heart of this crowded capital. As the uprising ended, many border guards reportedly shed their uniforms and fled the site, while security forces combed the area for fugitives. Police officers entering the building found a mass grave containing the bodies of officers in combat fatigues who had been seized as hostages. Seventy-four people were killed in the uprising, including 57 top-ranking and midranking army officers. The mutiny posed a stark test for the country’s leadership, elected after two years of army-backed emergency rule. Prosecutors originally brought charges against 850 people — 778 men serving in the Bangladesh Rifles and 23 civilians — but 277 were acquitted at a mass trial that began in August 2011. Of those convicted, 256 were given sentences of 20 years or less and 161, including Nasiruddin Ahmed Pintu, a former opposition member of Parliament, were sentenced to life in prison. Four of the accused died during the course of the trial. Defense lawyers said they would appeal, but relatives of the commanders killed applauded the sentences. Mehrin Mujib, the widow of one slain officer, Col. Mujibul Huq, said, “We can’t be satisfied until the verdict is implemented.” Rights advocates said they could not recall a time when so many defendants were sentenced to the death penalty in one single court proceeding. They were particularly struck by both the severity and the scope of the punishment in a country that has an established legal system and is not in a state of war. “It’s possible that there’s some civil war situation where this might have happened but there’s nobody who’s thought of it,” said Brad Adams, the executive director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia division. “We can’t think of anything like it.” Bangladesh has been one of the least frequent users of the death penalty in countries that still have capital punishment, according to Amnesty International. If all the defendants sentenced to death on Tuesday are executed, Bangladesh would rocket to third place in Amnesty’s annual ranking of death penalty countries, surpassing Iraq, but still below Iran and China. New york times
Posted on: Tue, 05 Nov 2013 19:17:37 +0000
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