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| Bangladesh |
| 4 BDR men held |
| 2009-04-29 |
| [Bangla Daily Star] Four more Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) soldiers, believed to be directly involved in the killings and looting of arsenals at Pilkhana, were arrested yesterday from the BDR headquarters. The arrested BDR men are deputy assistant directors (DADs) Abdul Jalil and Mirza Habibur Rahman and sepoys Selim Reza and Kajol Ali. Members of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) made the arrests acting on information and also verifying the video footages. Later, the four BDR personnel were placed on a seven-day remand each after the CID produced them before a Dhaka Court with a prayer for a 10-day remand for each of them. In the forwarding report placed before the court, investigation officer of the mutiny case and CID senior assistant superintendent Abdul Kahar Akand has mentioned that Selim and Kajol killed most of the BDR officials during the mutiny. About the two DADs, the report said they led the Feb 25-26 carnage inside the Pilkhana headquarters of BDR. According to the Rab, the arrested BDR soldiers were also involved in the mutiny planning. Sources said jawan Selim asked the senior officers, including the slain Director General of BDR Major Gen Shakil Ahmed, to come out of Darbar Hall at around 10:22am on February 25 and opened fire on the officers. Later another jawan appeared on the scene and spread bullets on the senior officers, killing almost all of them on the spot. During interrogation, many BDR jawans said jawans Selim and Kajol led a group of 10 to 12 BDR men in looting firearms from the armoury near the quarter guard inside Pilkhana on February 25. Another group of 10 to 12 BDR jawans led by Altaf and Jasim also looted arms and ammunition from the armoury on February 25. Moreover, DADs Jalil and Habib were among those who went to the Banani residence of an important person to provide the man with leaflets mentioning the demands of BDR jawans prior to the BDR Darbar. Besides, DAD Jalil was also one of the members of the team, which met with prime minister Sheikh Hasina at her Jamuna residence while the mutiny was going on. During interrogation of earlier arrested BDR jawans, investigators also came to know that jawans Selim and Kajol were present in two meetings of jawans from where the jawans planned to stage the mutiny to realise their demands. The Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) arrested the four after screening them out from the BDR jawans and handed them over to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) yesterday after primary investigation. Meanwhile, the army personnel yesterday recovered another firearm from Pilkhana during their search. |
| Posted by:Fred |