Bangladesh News

The investigators have no CCTV footage showing the vicious killings at BDR Pilkhana headquarters on February 25-26, said CID sources.

Most of the videotapes retrieved so far contain scenes of mutineers looting arms and ammunition from armouries and trying to break the surveillance cameras.

One shows some BDR jawans beating up an army official near the quarter guard. But as the scenes were captured from a distance, it is difficult to identify any of the culprits or the victim, added the sources.

Criminal Investigation Department (CID), which is probing the Pilkhana carnage, has nine CCTV cameras collected from various points across the BDR HQ.

An official, who is among those analysing the tapes, told The Daily Star, “We haven’t got footage of the massacre.”

The recovered closed-circuit TV cameras were installed at the BDR director general’s office and the quarter guard, a restricted area housing armouries and lockups.

Of those, only one was found undamaged. It was set up at the armoury of Dhaka Sector. But as it captured nothing important, it cannot be of much use as evidence, he said.

CID sources said the mutineers started breaking the CCTVs at around 10:00am and had most of the cameras inoperative by 11:30am on February 25.

Earlier, Commerce Minister Faruk Khan said the investigators had tapes that would help identify the killers and mutineers.

But investigation sources said as the electricity in the Darbar Hall was cut off soon after the start of the mutiny, recorder/s inside the hall stopped working.

Meanwhile, the investigators yesterday grilled 30 more border troops at Pilkhana. They also recovered some firearms dumped in different places inside the HQ.

Senior Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Abdul Kahar Akand, who is leading the investigation, told The Daily Star, “We’ve questioned some accused as well as some witnesses to the carnage.”

The number of BDR personnel arrested in the mutiny case stands at 694. Of them, 114 were taken on remand at different times.

Besides, Torab Ali, president of BDR retirees’ welfare association and leader of Awami League ward No.48 unit, and Zakir Hossain, son of a retired BDR man, have been hauled in for interrogation by Rapid Action Battalion (Rab).

Rab officials said they suspect the two, now on remand, had complicity in the bloody revolt.