Bangladesh News

Around 800 mutineers of Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) and outsiders were produced before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court in Dhaka in connection with the Philkhana mutiny case, disrupting trial proceedings of most the courts throughout the day yesterday.

This is for the first time such a large number of accused were produced before a Dhaka court in a case and it has broken the record in Bangladesh.

Meantime, the CMM Court asked the officer (IO) of Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to submit probe report of the case by May 12.

The accused were produced before eight magistrates at different times since 9:30am and it continued until about 4:15pm. They, including the prime accused DAD Syed Tauhidul Islam, were brought to the court from the Dhaka Central Jail and Kashimpur Jail in Gazipur.

The situation caused sufferings to the lawyers, litigants and others who appeared before the courts yesterday for different purposes.

Court sources said a total of 386 mutineers were brought from the Dhaka Central Jail while the rest from Kashimpur Jail under tight security.

Additional police forces were deployed inside and outside of the CMM Court to avoid any untoward incident on the court premises since morning. All the gates used by lawyers, litigants and others to enter the new building of the CMM Court were cordoned off.

No one, including lawyers and journalists, were permitted to enter the court considering the security matter. As a result, most of the lawyers could not collect information about the cases, scheduled for hearing yesterday, and failed to inform their clients of the court proceedings.

Meantime, trial proceedings of some cases at several other courts situated at the old building were held. But the accused on bail could not appear before the courts in due time while the accused in jail custody could not be produced before the courts due to tight security.

Sources said the CMM by his executive power at 9:00am directed the authorities concerned to hang notices on the walls of the courts asking all lawyers and litigants that trial proceedings of all the cases of nine metropolitan courts at the new court building would not be held.

The notice says the trial proceedings of all of those cases would be held at the old buildings. But lawyers could not enter the courts to collect the information about the cases.

Mohammad Jaidul Islam, an accused in a criminal case, of city’s Badda area told The Daily Star that he and eight others appeared before the court at 10:00am but they could not give their hazira (appearance) before the trial court.

A large number of lawyers expressed their resentment for not being permitted to enter the courts.

Meanwhile, Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) members yesterday arrested eight more members of BDR at the BDR headquarters at Pilkhana in connection with the February carnage.

With these, the total number of people arrested in the case is now 830.

The arrested BDR jawans are nayek subedar Idris Miah, habilder Shahjalal, habilder Didar Ali Mandal, lance nayek Delwar Hossain, sepoy Saiful Islam, sepoy Kamal Hossain, sepoy Rowshan Ali and sepoy Zakir Hossain.

Rab sources said they arrested the BDR men examining the footage of the carnage and also on information from various sources.